A Tale of Bewitching Events
by MiraclesVeemon
Summary: After the Digital World had closed up when MaloMyotismon was defeated, the Digidestinds are living normal lives. Sadly, Daisuke doesn't seem to be as lucky as the others. femDaisuke. I own nothing but the plot of my story, ocs and genderbent characters.
1. Meeting the Kiddie Prince

"Meeting the Kiddie Prince"

**I thought of doing something like this for a while now, but I'm not doing the entire series. I'm mostly sticking to the Saint Beasts saga, Yukina's rescue and the Dark Tournament. After that, I'm not sure what to do. And as for the pairings…I'm thinking maybe Kurama or Hiei unless you guys have a better idea for which of the Yu Yu boys Dai should be with. Please enjoy and review!**

A girl with mahogany hair sat in class with her head down on her desk as it started to throb painfully for some reason.

It had been happening for a week now, the pressure being centred in the middle of her forehead as it built up, creating more pain.

The teacher, a man in his forties with a balding head and brown hair looked over at the girl with a bit of concern on his face.

"Motomiya-san, are you feeling unwell?" he asked the girl.

The girl, Dai Motomiya, looked up at him, but kept her bangs over her eyes to keep the light out of her eyes.

A blonde haired boy and brown haired girl both looked back at their friend to see that she had tears in her red rimmed eyes.

"No, Haru-sensei." Dai said quietly.

The man sighed as he sat down and wrote up a hall pass for her.

"Come take this and go to the nurse's office. She should send you home if you're not feeling well." Haru-sensei said.

Dai stood up as she gathered her books and was careful to not trip and fall as her vision blurred a bit as she walked over to the teacher and accepted the pass and then she walked out into the hallway, her green skirt swishing as she went.

Before she went to the nurse, she stopped in the bathroom to check herself out to see if she was as bad as she felt.

Looking in the mirror, she saw her tanned skin was a bit pale from the sickness caused by the pain and her dark crimson brown eyes were rimmed with red, her face was flushed and her shoulder length mahogany hair was messier than usual.

"Great, I look like the walking dead." She sighed.

She brushed off her green uniform shirt and took off her blue neck tie to tie her hair up into a messy bun, her bangs and two fringes still down.

She then walked out to go see the nurse, the kind old woman reading a romance novel at her desk when she heard someone enter the room.

She looked up with a smile.

"Hello, how can I help you? Oh, Motomiya-chan. Still not feeling well?" she asked when she saw the girl.

"Sadly. Nothing I take will make it go away." Dai said as she stumbled over to the bed and sat down on it.

The nurse walked over and started taking the girl's temperature, but the girl was tensed up as this went on.

She never did like doctors or dentists because of how they would always touch you without your consent and you couldn't do anything about it since it was a part of their job, but this old woman was too kind to not trust, so Dai tried to not be rude to her or freak out.

It didn't mean she liked being in a hospital room or nurse's office though.

"Oh, my. You should go home and talk to your parents about going to a hospital for a real check up." The nurse said.

"You go on home. I'll tell the principal you're singing out. Will you be all right to go home alone or do I need to pull your sister out of class to take you?" she asked.

"No, I'll be fine." Dai said.

Within twenty minutes, Dai was walking out of the school with her backpack slung over her shoulder and dark sunglasses over her eyes to protect them from the sunlight so the pain in her head wouldn't worsen.

'Why do I keep getting these headaches? I can barely sleep with them especially I keep having these weird dreams, too.' She thought.

The girl had also been getting strange dreams of demonic creatures walking around her, but no one could see that.

They only saw ordinary people and were unaware of the dangers that surrounded them.

'Damn, I need to get home.' Dai thought.

As she was walking, she felt a shiver go down her spine and looked off to the side to see what was causing it.

A young girl dressed in a pink summer dress with her black hair pulled up in pigtails was walking into an alley followed by a tall man.

What caught Dai's attention was the fake that the man's skin was blue and he had yellow eyes along with fangs poking out of his mouth.

Without a second though, she quickly ran across the street to get over to the alley and was in time to see that the man was about the slash his clawed hand at the girl and kill her.

"No!" Dai yelled.

She dropped her bag and ran, making it just in time to grab the girl, wrapping her arms around her protectively as the creature swiped his claws down and wound up hitting Dai instead.

She gritted her teeth to ignore the pain as she felt blood flowing from her shoulder blades where the four large marks were.

"You little wretch. How dare you interrupt me?" he snarled.

Dai pulled away from the girl and gave her a small smile when she saw the fear in her blue eyes.

"Everything will be all right. Just let me take care of this jerk, OK?" the 14 year old asked.

The little girl nodded as the teenager stood up and glared at the man.

"Why did you come after her?" Dai demanded.

"Because…I was looking for a snack." The man said as he licked his talons that had Dai's blood on them.

He moaned at the sweet taste it had like fine wine and eyed the teenager as she stood ready to fight even though her eyes were a bit glazed from what appeared to be an illness.

"That's not gonna happen, bastard. Come after me instead." Dai said.

"As you wish." He said.

He then charged at the girl, but she slipped under his legs and kicked upwards, getting him in his private.

"You bitch!" he roared as he held his private and the girl quickly got up and grabbed a tin garbage can lid and hit him over the head.

That just annoyed him even more as he grabbed the girl and threw her to the ground in front of him.

As for the little girl, she was hiding behind the wall so that she could watch the fight.

She was too scared to move, but didn't feel like leaving the kind lady who saved her from the scary man.

Unknown to Dai, she was being watched by someone else who was soaring above in the skies.

"My, this is interesting. I hope that girl can handle herself." The figure said.

Dai got back up, but was kicked down by the man as he bared his fangs and was about to swing his talons down.

"Now you die." He said.

As his hand got closer to her chest to rip her heart out, Dai closed her eyes and thought hard on some way to protect herself.

"STOP!" she yelled.

Suddenly, all of the pressure that had been building in her head for the past week rushed out of her and blasted out in a wave.

The man yelled as he was knocked back from the teenager and slammed into a building, hard enough to leave an imprint of his body.

"Whoa." Dai breathed.

"My, that was good luck." The figure watching commented with a grin.

Dai stood back up and was pleased to see that the pressure had lessened, but it was still there.

The man pushed himself up and glared.

"You…I don't know how you did that…but you won't be able to do it again!" he roared.

He then charged at her, but Dai smirked as she focused on what she had felt before.

Another wave of energy was sent out at the man, sending him back into the wall.

She then looked over to see a large green garbage container and bit her lip as she tried to force the waves she created to make it move.

"Come on." She groaned.

The container started to shake as the man stood up and charged at the girl again.

Dai held her hand out facing the container and then swung her hand at the man, the container following.

The man screamed as he was hit by the large metal container that was filled with all kinds of trash, his legs and pelvis being shattered from the impact.

"Ah! She did it!" the figure squealed delighted.

Dai was panting a bit as she leaned back against the wall of the alley as she watched the man try to move, but he was stuck unless he was helped.

"Next time…don't pick on little girls." She advised.

"Miss?" the little raven haired girl called.

Turning around, Dai saw that the girl was holding her book bag out to her as the girl smiled at her.

"Thank you for saving me." She smiled.

"Sure. Let's get you back to your mommy." Dai smiled softly.

Even though she felt a bit tired, she still had her adrenalin pumping from the fight and took the girl's hand as she walked the girl back to her home.

The figure that was watching swooped down from the skies riding on oar, her baby blue hair blowing in the wind.

Her candy pink eyes took in the body of the man and smiled as she looked back over to where the teenager had walked off with the child she had saved.

"Someone like that is hard to find. I'll need to tell Koenma about her." She said.

A few weeks later after that incident, Dai was sitting in her room on a Saturday afternoon.

After she found the girl, Akiza's mother, the woman brought Dai to her friend Jyou's house so that he could patch her up.

The dark blue haired male scolded her for being impulsive and racing out into danger like she did, but was proud of her for helping the child.

When she got back home, she decided to try and control her new gifts to see what she was able to do.

Her hand was hovering above an apple she had placed on her bed in front of her and she was focusing on using her powers like she had been for a while now.

The apple then floated up making her smile as with only her thoughts she made it float around her in different shapes.

When she was done, she held out her hand as the apple fell into her palm.

"OK, let's see…" she said as she thought of other things to try.

Suddenly, she grinned like a child as she picked up her pillow and tore it open to reveal all of the fathers inside of it.

"Let's see how this goes." Dai said.

With only the thought in her head, all of the feathers floated off of the bed and floated around the room.

The light was coming in from the window making the white feathers look angelic as they circled around Dai, making her smile even more and giggle at the sight.

Suddenly, she felt something approaching her, but ignored it since it didn't feel threatening and thought it may be a mouse or something.

Jun did complain to their parents about seeing one before and that they should get a cat to catch it, but the two didn't listen to their eldest.

"Oh, how beautiful!" someone gushed.

Dai gasped as she turned to see that a girl dressed in a pink kimono sitting on an oar that was hovering in the air was in her room.

There wasn't a hostile presence when Dai looked at her, so she calmed down, but was still a bit wary.

So it wasn't a mouse after all.

"Don't cha know it's rude to enter someone's house without permission?" she scolded.

"I'm sorry, but I just had to come meet you. I saw the way you so courageously saved that little girl without even caring for you own safety. It was a bit impulsive, but so heroic." The bluenette said as she flew over to the girl.

"Uh, what? Who are you?" Dai asked as she blinked.

"Oh, I'm Botan. I'm the guide to the River Styx, assistant of the Prince of Spirit World and the Grim Reaper." She said.

The mahogany haired girl kept quiet at that as she looked at the girl.

"So…you're the Grim Reaper? Remind me again why people are scared of death." She said making Botan giggle.

"Anyway, I've come here to bring you to meet my boss. After I told him about how you beat that demon, he wants to meet you." Botan said.

"Demon? That freak was a demon? Makes sense." Dai nodded as she made the feathers settle down in a pile on the floor.

"So who's this boss guy?" she asked.

"He's the Prince of Spirit World, like I said before. Just hop on and I'll take you to the Spirit World to meet him." Botan said as she patted her oar.

Dai weighed her options to figure what would happen if she went with the Grimm Reaper, but just shrugged.

After all, this may be her only chance to find out why she had these powers in the first place.

"OK, let's go." Dai said as she hoped onto the oar.

"Now, off we gooo!" Botan cheered.

The two girls took off into the air and soon entered a portal that had them come out at some strange yellow snake like river under them as they made it to a room that was filled with different colored ogres.

"Here we are." Botan said.

"Dude, that was awesome. Can we do it again?" Dai asked with a smile.

The Grimm Reaper giggled as she led the younger girl off down the palace as they walked by the ogres.

"Why are these guys running around like this? They look like chickens with their heads cut off." Dai said.

"Koenma makes them work very hard." Botan said.

"I have a feeling we won't get along." Dai muttered with a pout.

They came to a door and Botan announced their arrival as the two girls walked inside of the room to see a large chair at a desk in the office with a television screen and what looked like a VCR.

"Here is Daisuke Motomiya just like you asked, sir." Botan said.

"So where is he?" Dai asked as she looked around the room.

This Koenma person sounded like he was some tall, rich person who was bossy and pushed everyone around from what she had seen of those poor ogres.

"Down here." A voice said.

Dark crimson eyes looked down and found a toddler dressed in blue and pink with brown hair and eyes sitting in the big chair with a pacifier in his mouth and he wore a large hat with Jr. written on it.

The three people in the room were silent as they waited to see who would make the first move.

Dai suddenly shot over to the toddler like a streak of mahogany and was found sitting in the chair with the toddler in her arms as she hugged it.

"Aw, you are so cute!" she squealed.

Not known to many people, she had a bit of a weakness for cute things such as animals and children even though she always hid it.

The toddler looked stunned from the girl's speed as it seemed like only a second he was in the girl's arms while Botan was trying not to burst out laughing at what had taken place.

"Are you Koenma's baby brother? Where is he?" Dai asked.

"Actually, Daisuke, that is Koenma." The bluenette said.

The teenager looked at the toddler and sweat dropped as she sat him down in his chair and backed away.

"Uh, sorry about that." She chuckled nervously.

Koenma cleared his throat as he tried to force back the blush he had from the hug.

"It's fine. Although, at least you aren't mocking me or insulting me like the last teenager who was here. He had a hard believing I'm the Prince or that I'm the boss of Botan and the many ogres out there." He said.

"So are you a prodigy or something? I mean, it's not that weird if you were a kid genius. I actually know one in America who graduated from college when he was only 8." Dai stated.

"Actually, Lord Koenma is over 700 years old." Botan explained making Dai nod in interest.

"Yes, now…the reason we have called you here is because you took out a criminal demon that normally feeds on small children. You knew he wasn't right and then you activated your powers that took him out." Koenma said.

"Uh huh." Dai nodded as she was unsure of where this was going.

"Strange enough, you don't have any heightened spirit energies or any youki, so we dug into your family history." The Prince said.

A blue ogre then stepped into the room carrying a file and set in down on the desk.

Koenma took it and opened up the file to read from it.

"As it turns out, the women in your family happen to be witches. The power you used was actually magic." He said.

Dai's eyes widened in wonder as she thought over what he had just said.

She was used to things that happened in the Digital World, but to find out that the tales of demons, witches and such were real and had nothing to do with digimon was just amazing.

"So I'm a witch? A real live witch?" she asked excited.

Blinking, Botan was sure the girl had just grown kitty ears and a tail from her excitement.

"Yes, but witches are very well hidden from Spirit World and Demon World now a days. If word got out about you, then demons would be coming after you for the pleasure of killing a witch. That's why I called you here." Koenma said.

"What, are ya gonna put me in witchness protection program or something?" Dai asked.

"No, no, no." Botan giggled as she shook her head.

"It turns out that you have only one living relative in your family who is a witch. You should go to her for training immediately so that you can protect yourself." Koenma said.

"OK, who is she?" Dai asked.

The Prince looked through the large file until he found something.

"Kaede Midorikawa." He said.

"That's my grandma!" Dai gasped with wide eyes.

"That's wonderful. It makes much more sense to learn the craft from your own family." Botan said.

"I assume you know where your grandmother lives? Then you may go and begin your training." Koenma said.

Dai nodded and followed Botan out after she waved at the toddler and ogre.

"She seems like a sweet girl. Not at all like those stereo type witches that are in horror movies or for Halloween." The ogre said.

"I just hope she can reach her true potential before she's taken away by a demon, George." Koenma sighed.

(Later on…)

As soon as Dai got home, she changed into a pair of jeans, orange tank top and black boots before she grabbed her wallet and took off to the train station.

She was going to visit her grandmother in Kyoto to see what if she could help her out.

In about an hour, she finally arrived and ran off an old Japanese styled house that was in the country side with many trees and a glorious garden filled with different types of flowers and herbs.

In the garden was a woman dressed in a kimono that was dark blue with cherry blossoms on it with a white obi.

"Grandma!" Dai called as she ran over.

Kaede looked up and smiled as she saw her youngest granddaughter running over to her.

"Dai, what a lovely surprise. I haven't seen you since you were nine. How are you?" the woman asked.

She embraced the girl as soon as she was close enough.

Although Kaede never said it, she had always preferred Dai over Jun since she knew that the youngest daughter had a special gift.

Also, Dai resembled Kaede from when she was her age.

The old woman's gray hair used to be mahogany and her old wrinkled skin still had that lovely tan.

"Now, come on inside and we can have some tea and cookies." Kaede said.

"OK." Dai nodded as she picked up the basket of herbs that she saw her grandmother using before.

The two walked into the house, sitting at the low table while her grandmother made the lavender tea fresh in front of her.

"Now what brings you here, dear?" Kaede asked.

"Well…I don't know how to say this, so I'll just come out with it." Dai said.

When her grandmother gave her a look to continue, the girl took in a deep breath.

"For a week my head really hurt and I was having dreams about demons, then this little girl almost got eaten by a demon, but I saved her by activating my powers and when I was practicing them in my room, a Grimm Reaper appeared and brought me to Spirit World to meet the Prince and he told me I'm a witch and I was wondering if you knew about this and could pretty please train me." Dai said all in one breath.

Kaede stared at her granddaughter in surprise, not at how fast she had said all of those things in one breath and didn't appear winded from it, but from _what_ the girl had said.

The old woman set her grinder down to stop mixing the ingredients for the tea and stared at Dai with pride, worry and happiness in her dark crimson eyes.

"I should have known. One of these days I knew you would come into your powers, but I never expected it to be now. And to have already faced a demon and gone to Spirit World to meet the Prince? You truly are a miracle child. That or very unlucky." Kaede said.

"I get that a lot." Dai shrugged.

The old woman chuckled as she hugged her granddaughter and kissed her head.

"I'll train you. Now come. Show me what you've learned all on your own." Kaede said.

Dai nodded eagerly as she looked at the tea cup set and they all started to float around the room.

The woman watched with interest as the cups then were settled down gently on the table.

"Well done. Now, watch what I can do." Kaede said.

She lifted up a tea cup and tossed it up in the air.

The two watched as it started to fall down, but Kaede then raised her hand up making the cup freeze in mid-air.

"Whoa!" Dai gasped as she stood up and went over to check the cup.

"I'm not sure if you have this ability as well. You seem to be able to move things with your mind, so in the future you may be able to use astral projection." Kaede said.

"Astal what?" Dai asked curiously.

"Astral projection. It means you can move your soul out of your body to a different place. If you get very good, you'll be able to fight and use your other powers in astral form. Maybe even have your body still awake with your astral form to fight together. Now, this training will be hard. I won't cut any corners. Are you ready?" Kaede asked.

"You bet I am!" Dai cheered.

The cup then unfroze as it fell to the ground and shattered making the girl look at it with a small guilty smile.

"Um, what I supposed to catch that?" she asked.

To be continued…


	2. First Mission

"First Mission: New Friends"

**OK, here is the next chapter. Please enjoy and review!**

Six months had gone by since Dai started her training with Kaede and she was doing fairly well with being able to levitate objects and could even sense different energy signatures of humans, demons and ghosts.

That was something she practiced while she was out in the cities of Odaiba and Kyoto.

Her friends, Takeru Takaishi and Hikari Yagami were happy that she was no longer sick, but were a bit upset that she couldn't spend much time with them due to some special training she was getting from her grandmother, but they respected it.

The young witch felt bad about keeping secrets from her friends, but she to learn how to protect herself form demons and also any innocents who could be targeted by them when the Spirit Detective was unable to reach them.

Now at this very moment, Dai was at her grandmother's house at that meditating in mid-air while Kaede was out in the garden's working on her herbs.

Dai had her eyes closed as she sensed someone come into the room and smiled when she recognized the signature.

"Hey, Botan." She greeted with her eyes still closed.

"Wow, you really have gotten good." The Grimm Reaper complimented.

"Anyway, I came here with an urgent message." She said.

Dai opened her eyes and floated down to the ground to see that her friend was dressed in civilian clothing and held a silver baseball bat in one hand and her oar in the other.

"What's up?" she asked.

"A group of powerful demons called the Saint Beasts are using something called the Makai whistle to control insects that invade a human's mind and turn them into zombies." Botan said.

"What?! That sick!" Dai said as she glared in disgust at this.

"Yes. Koenma has our Spirit Detective on the case along with another friend of his that is spiritually aware. Two demons are also being sent to help, but we might need you to help the boys out. Can you please?" Botan asked with hopeful eyes.

Dai bit her lip as she thought this over, unsure of what to do or say.

Her grandmother wouldn't want her to go out facing demons without any help, but she would have to place her trust in the Spirit Detective and his teammates.

"Where are they?" Dai asked.

Botan laughed happily as she hugged the witch.

(Later…)

After leaving a note for her grandmother, Dai and Botan took off to Spirit World where George was waiting on Dai to take her to speak with Koenma while Botan went back to Earth to keep the zombies under control.

When they made it to the office, Dai sensed two demon signatures.

One was a bit hostile while the other was gentle, but still as deadly as the first.

"Lord Koenma, Daisuke Motomiya is here." George said as he opened the door.

The toddler looked up as well as the two males in the room to see the ogre walk inside with a girl dressed in a pair of orange track pants, black running shoes, black tank top, wore black leather fingerless gloves and had her hair pulled into a high ponytail as her bangs and fringes stayed down.

"Ah, it's been a while. How have you been?" Koenma asked.

"Do we really have time for talking when there are zombies out there being controlled by evil demons?" Dai asked.

"I suppose not. Kurama, Hiei. This is Daisuke. She will be going with you two to help Yusuke and Kuwabara out at Maze Castle." Koenma said to the two males.

The redhead dressed in a purple school uniform walked over with a charming smile and held his hand out to the girl, his emerald green eyes sparkling.

"It's a pleasure. I'm Kurama." He said.

"Hey." She said taking his hand.

The male with gravity defying black hair with a starburst of white around his bangs was dressed in black with a white scarf and white bandana.

She stared at it as she sensed another energy signature from it.

"Something wrong, witch?" he glared at her.

"No." she said.

"Then why are you staring?" he demanded.

"There's something under your bandana. It's…" Dai trailed off as she focused closer on it.

Under closer inspection she saw the shape of a violet iris and black pupil under the cloth staring at her.

"An eye?" she asked in surprise.

"Yes, Hiei has a Jagan Eye. It's an artificial eye that gives him powerful psychic abilities." Kurama explained.

"Oh, it that it? Cool. So where's Maze Castle?" Dai asked turning back to Koenma.

"It's in the Demon World. You three will be going through the portal to help Yusuke and Kuwabara. Hang on tight, you three. This ride will be a bit of a doozy." The Prince warned.

The three turned around as a portal opened up and they were covered in electricity.

They were then pulled into the portal and wound up finding a black haired boy dressed in a green school uniform and a boy with orange hair and a blue school uniform being attacked by short green skinned demons in tattered cloaks.

The green, red and blue balls of energy that the two demons and witch were caught their attention as they went up into a tree, the lights burning so bright that they scared the creatures away.

The light soon faded away, making the two humans sigh in relief.

"That worked, whatever it was." The raven teen said as he and the orangette looked up at the tree to see three figures.

"It seems you could use some help." Kurama said.

"If those nothings were too much for you, we're going to have some serious trouble." Hiei said.

Dai just giggled as she and the two males jumped down from the tree and landed in front of the two spiritually aware teens.

"Well, well, well. The thieves and I'm guessing you're the witch." The raven said with a grin.

"Hello." Kurama greeted.

"Good guess." Dai grinned.

"Well, what are you doing here?" the raven asked.

"Even that fool Koenma knew it would take more than human power to kill the Saint Beasts." Hiei said.

"By aiding in this mission, Koenma has assured us we can clean our slates in Spirit World." Kurama said.

"And I just agreed because I don't like what these freaks are doing." Dai said as the raven laughed.

"I guess Koenma heard me complaining. Hey, Kuwabara, let me introduce you to these guys. That's Hiei, this is Kurama and this is Daisuke." The raven said.

"Pleasure." Kurama said.

"How did you know about me?" Dai asked tilting her head to the side.

"Botan told me about you. I'm Yusuke by the way." The raven said.

"Call me Dai then. Less of a mouthful." She said.

"Well, I don't have a clue what's going on, but it sure is nice to have a helping hand." Kuwabara said.

"Helping is not the right word." Hiei said.

Yusuke and Kuwabara gave him a look while Dai was curious and Kurama looked amused.

"Koenma may regard us as equals, but I do not. Once inside the castle, I suggest you let us do the work. As far as I'm concerned, we're babysitting." Hiei said.

The redhead chuckled softly at that while Dai sweat dropped at his bluntness, but she could also respect it.

"Does that include me? The being babysat thing?" she asked.

The scarlet eyed demon remained silent.

"Listen you puny jerk-face, I'm gonna have to beat you up if you keep talking down to us that way." Kuwabara said annoyed.

"Let's avoid fighting. You're not worth it." Hiei stated.

"Oh, that's it!" Kuwabara growled.

He then threw his arm back and went to punch Hiei, but the demon was a blur of black as he dodged it and wound up closer to Yusuke, looking up at him as the orangette fell to the ground from the momentum he used.

"But you, Detective, are a different story. I plan to take my revenge on you, so consider this fair warning." Hiei said to Yusuke while Kuwabara took that time to stand up looking even more annoyed.

"Oh, you wanna ignore me, huh?" he asked.

He went to swing again, but Hiei just sidestepped him and Kuwabara fell to the ground again.

"Hiei, we must face this current business before you start your own." Kurama advised.

"Don't worry three eyes. If we survive this, then I'll be glad to take you on. Now is this a perfect team or what?" Yusuke asked.

Kuwabara glared at Hiei while the short male scoffed as he looked off to the side.

A group of misfits with different backgrounds and powers who have personalities that contradicts each other going off to save the world?

They truly were the perfect team in Dai's mind.

The five all then turned to go off to the castle where the Saint Beasts were, Dai asking about the whole thief business and Kurama gladly explained things to her and she listened closely to it all.

She didn't judge the fox demon and fire demon for their crimes; instead she was looking forward to learning more about them now which surprised and pleased Kurama greatly by her forgiving personality.

"Wow, now this place is homey." Yusuke said as they arrived at the entrance.

It was a cave that looked like a skeleton head with fangs.

"So I guess we're just gonna walk right in?" Kuwabara asked.

"Any prize that's worth having usually requires a risk." Kurama said.

"I say we make 'em come out here and face us up front like they're not a bunch of sissies." Kuwabara said.

"Heh, you're sense of strategy is amazing." Hiei sniped.

"Are you talking to me, runt boy?" Kuwabara snapped.

Yusuke and Dai both groaned in annoyance and their faces showed their feelings perfectly.

"Let's go." Yusuke growled out.

"Stupid dwarf." Kuwabara muttered.

The group all walked inside, Dai focusing on the area around her to see if one of the demons would come out to attack them at any time.

As they went, she soon stopped when she felt something.

"Something's coming." She said making the males stop to look at her.

"What? How do you know?" Kuwabara asked.

"You can't sense it? It's not very strong…in fact, we could probably kill it real easy, but it's not human and its right up ahead." Dai said.

The four males shared a look before they continued on their way, the only female following at the rear.

They walked down the stone hallway when they finally came to an opening to see some sort of eyeball with a yellow iris and purple bat wings attached to it, proving the witch was right.

"Welcome to Maze Castle." He said.

"Whoa, it talked." Kuwabara said.

"Those who enter Maze Castle must be tried by the Gate of Betrayal." The eye/bat said.

"What do you mean 'tried'?" Yusuke asked.

The eye/bat turned and flew off as the group watched it go.

It flew over out of the cave and a secret hatch in the wall opened up to reveal a lever that he used one of his thin tentacles to use to pull it down.

The ground then shook making the five look around in worry.

"Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked.

"Why did you have to ask?" he whined.

"Why are we just standing here when we should be running?" Dai snapped.

"The ceiling!" Kurama yelled.

Just then, the ceiling came falling down and the five held it up on their shoulders, Dai whimpering at the weight on her shoulders as her hands were on the ceiling and she tried to focus her magic to hold it up and take off the weight for her and the others.

"Heavy isn't it? Sensors in the corridor are most intelligent and a complex assembly of years adapt the ceiling's weight precisely to the strength of its victims. Of course there is a catch. Just enough leave way for one person to escape, leaving their friends to be crushed by the weight." The eye/bat sneered.

"Damn it." Yusuke grunted.

"But decisions must be made quickly. Not even the five of you combined can hold this ceiling for long. Insist on teamwork and everyone will be crushed. Only by turning against your friends will one of you be able to escape. Only the traitor among you deserves to enter Maze Castle. That's why it's called the Gate of Betrayal, you see?" the eye/bat said.

It then laughed obnoxiously as it flew off to watch from a distance, enjoying the desperation in their eyes and sweat dripping down their faces as their bodies fought to hold the weight up.

"I'd like to get my hands on that bat thing." Kuwabara grunted.

Sadly, with his anger taking more control, he almost lost his grip so the others grunted as they had to try and keep the ceiling from falling down as Kuwabara focused his stance properly.

"Stay focused on the weight or you'll kill us all." Hiei scolded.

"Oh, sure. Blame me." Kuwabara said.

"We are blaming you." Dai groaned as sweat dripped down her face.

She had never been through this type of situation before.

"Why're you takin' his side? I bet I'm holding up a lot more weight than he is." Kuwabara said.

"Shut it Kuwabara." Yusuke called.

"Well, I'm not about to die for the sake of you worthless humans." Hiei said.

"Don't you even consider it, Hiei." Kurama moaned.

"Oh, man. I knew we should have played some trust games." Yusuke muttered.

"This has always been my favorite part of the trial. Watching the way you squirm as your muscles begin to pop and tear under the ceiling's weight. But of course the best is your eyes. Seeing the gears of thought turn in desperation. Thinking. Questioning yourself. How long can I hold this? Will I die this way? Will one friend betray us and escape while we flatten or should I be the one?" the eye/bat taunted.

"Just ignore that punk. Stick together…" Kuwabara said as the wall started to press down harder on them and they slipped a bit.

"And if anybody tries to run, I swear I'll drag 'em back myself." He said.

"Ha! And I bet you think it be noble if we all died as a team?" Hiei mocked.

"That's right." Kuwabara said.

"Here's a thought; let's shut up and find a way out." Yusuke said.

He grunted as he looked over to the lever as he got an idea.

"Hiei! You're a lot faster than any of us. We'll hold the ceiling up while you go and flip the switch." He said to the fire demon.

"You crazy?! We can't trust that guy. Just look! He doesn't care at all about us." Kuwabara yelled.

"You're ugly friend has a good point, Detective." Hiei smirked.

"Who's ugly?! Come here, you mouse!" the orangette yelled.

"Are you sure you want to trust me? I've already vowed my revenge on you. Maybe I'll handle that now." Hiei said.

"What's the point of getting your revenge if you're not the one doing it? You wouldn't be killing him; that stupid eyeball would. You may be a demon, but I know you have a lot more honor than these freaks do. Don't insult yourself by stooping down to their level." Dai said.

Hiei looked back at her, scarlet meeting dark crimson to see the trust glowing in her eyes.

He could tell that she was already using her magic to help them all, but she was pushing herself to her limits.

"I'll let out all of the spirit power I have left to buy us a little time while you get to the switch. Don't trip." Yusuke said as he glowed red.

The fire demon glanced at the boy and girl, recognizing the same look in both of their eyes as they gave him smiles.

"I trust you." Yusuke nodded before he grunted.

"Just go, Hiei! You can do it!" Dai called.

"Now GO!" Yusuke yelled.

Grunting, Hiei shot off in a streak of black out of the trap and arrived at the lever, shocking the eye/bat at what had happened.

Hiei smirked as he was about to pull the lever, but he hesitated as he felt two parts of him conflicting.

His demon nature to care for only himself and the growing feelings for the humans.

He looked back at them feeling a bit helpless of what to do.

"What's the deal? Pull the stupid switch already!" Kuwabara yelled.

Hiei gritted his teeth in thought as the eye/bat floated down to speak to him.

"There is no need to make snap judgements, my friend. What have they ever done for you? Leave them and you can come with me into the castle. With the invasion of Earth, the four Saint Beasts will control the future. Be smart. Join us. Perhaps you could be the general of our demon army." The eye/bat said.

"Don't you dare, you creep! If it hadn't been for our help, you'd still be screaming with the rest of us!" Kuwabara grunted.

As his hand fell away from the lever, Hiei turned his body fully to them and chuckled darkly.

"What're you laughing about?!" Kuwabara yelled.

"Take a guess, you fool." Hiei sneered.

"Damn you!" Kuwabara growled.

"Yes, you find amusement in their pain? Now imagine the satisfaction that will come from their final screams." The eye/bat said giddily before he broke into psychotic laughter.

The ceiling as dropping down more as Yusuke and Dai's powers were draining away.

"Hiei!" Kuwabara yelled.

"A wise choice. The boulder would have crushed you anyway." The critter said as he turned to leave.

Hiei gritted his teeth as he glared at him and then quickly slashed at him with his katana.

"Thanks for the clue!" he said as the critter was bleeding from his eye being cut in the middle.

The fire demon then lifted the lever up, stopping the ceiling making Dai and Yusuke smile in relief and happiness as they stopped using their powers.

"He came through!" Yusuke said.

Just then, a large boulder fell from the sky and fell right where Hiei was, making the group worry that he was hit.

"Hiei!" Dai cried as she ran out.

Relief filled her when she saw that he was standing on top of the boulder safely as he glared at the slowly dying eye/bat.

"Tell your Masters this is their chance to beg for mercy." He said as the critter flew off to go die.

Yusuke let out a sigh as he slumped over.

"Hey, are you all right?" Kuwabara asked.

"Oh, yeah. I just can't feel my arms right now." Yusuke breathed.

Kurama saw Dai stumble, and was at her side to steady her.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, just never used my powers to lift something as heavy as that before." She panted with a weak smile.

Hiei jumped down onto the ground, Yusuke and Dai smiling at him.

"I knew you'd save us, you punk." Yusuke gave a wink and thumbs up as the fire demon gave a look that seemed a bit like a pout.

"But you did have me worried. Hell of an actor." Yusuke said as he wrapped an arm around Hiei.

"You know, not everyone can pretend to laugh at their dying friends." Yusuke said as he pulled away and rubbed at his nose.

"Hn. Friends are just a crutch for the weak. And I wasn't acting." Hiei said as he walked away while Yusuke and Dai snickered, Kurama smiled in amusement and Kuwabara was steamed up.

"Say what?" he demanded.

"Don't confuse it." Hiei said as he turned to them and pointed at them.

"The only reason I saved you is because I might need your help." He said before he continued on into the castle.

"Ah heh. That's his way of saying you're welcome. You will learn." Kurama said.

"Riiight." Yusuke drawled.

"Well, he still ticks me off." Kuwabara said.

To be continued…


	3. Genbu the Turtle

"Genbu the Turtle"

**Here is the next chapter. BTW, did anyone notice that the Saint Beasts are based on the red phoenix, blue dragon, black turtle and white tiger from some old legends from…Japan or China? I just noticed that when I really thought about it. Oh, should Dai get to fight one of the Saint Beasts or just help out by sensing things? I hope you enjoy and review!**

The group were now walking down the hallway as they continued their way into the castle, Dai reaching out to sense what would be coming up next for them.

"Dai, what's up?" Yusuke asked as he noticed what the girl was doing.

"Something very powerful is waiting for us at the end." She said with narrowed eyes.

"Aw, don't worry. I'll protect you. You have my word that I, Kazuma Kuwabara, will not let anything bad happen to you." The orangette said as he slung an arm around her.

Truth be told, he came to be protective of the girl since she reminded him of a kitten and of course his code demanded it.

Hiei rolled his eyes at that while Dai gave the tall male a look of disbelief.

"Come near me and I'll turn you into a toad." She said making the buff male back up.

After all, he knew nothing about her powers or what she could even do.

Who knew what she was possible of?

The group all then carried on for a few more minutes without talking as they saw creepy looking statues on the walls as they walked.

Just then, a loud beeping noise went off making Kuwabara jump back in shock and yelled while Yusuke reached into his pocket to pull out a purple compact with a pink flower that had four petals.

"What is that thing? Is it safe?" Kuwabara asked as he gave it a wary look.

"It's a communication mirror I got from Botan." Yusuke said as he opened it up to show the bluenette standing in an alley.

"Hello, Yusuke. It's Botan here in the living world. You copy?" she asked with a victory sign.

"Yeah, I-"

Yusuke was cut off by Kuwabara pushing his head back so he could see the Grimm Reaper.

"Hey, what's up, Botan? This is the brave Kuwabara reporting at your service. I'm taking very good care of Urameshi." He said as the raven glared at him.

The bluenette sweat dropped at that as she gave a nervous close eyed smile.

"I'm so glad to hear that. I've got things under control here as well more or less. The Makai insects only like to nest in depressed people's minds. That narrows down my search a bit. But I've also found another spy for the Saint Beasts. I just can't figure out how they're getting passed the barrier. See, I think they're demons from outside the city taking orders along the wall." Botan said.

Behind her, the spy, who was a demon with a green face and had purple splotches and yellow eyes was creeping up behind her.

"Watch out!" Yusuke yelled.

She smiled as she swung the baseball bat behind her and hit the spy, knocking him out.

"Don't worry, those guys are weaklings. The real challenge is finding those Makai insects. I've only caught 15 of those buggers and I've been searching for nearly a day." Botan pouted.

"Don't worry, baby, we'll-"

Kuwabara was cut off by Yusuke punching him in the face.

"Fifteen?! That's not much help." He said.

"Yusuke, fighting people controlled by the insects," Botan turned with a frown to see the spy getting back up, but hit him back down.

"…takes time. That's why you need to get that whistle." She said.

"OK, we're trying, but this castle is kind of rough." Yusuke said as Kuwabara stood next to him with his face messed up from the punch Yusuke threw at him.

"Well, of course it is. No one has survived before." Botan said as she ended the conversation and hung up.

They all started walking again, Yusuke holding his chin in thought as they went, the demons keeping a look out for the danger Dai had sensed earlier on.

"Kurama, what do you know about these four saint people?" the Detective asked.

"Botan pushed us down that hole like a couple of cows and I didn't have a chance to ask her." He said.

"She wouldn't have told you much, I'm afraid. Ever since the barrier wall was raised around the city, Spirit World intelligence virtually forgot this place existed." The fox demon explained.

"What do you know?" Kuwabara asked.

"Let's just say that when you see their bodies, you may be very surprised." Kurama said.

Dai suddenly tensed up and gasped making the males look at her.

"Terrified is more like it." a deep voice said making everyone look around.

"Who said that?" Kuwabara asked.

Their answer was evil laughter and the sound of something getting closer to them.

"There's a door behind you. Please, take it." the voice said making the group turn to see the metal doors.

The two teenage human males pushed the door open to view what was hiding behind it.

"Ladies first." Yusuke said.

It was silent as they looked around the stone room that had some torches on the walls and at the end of the hall was a staircase.

Yusuke grabbed one of the torches and threw it into the shadows and there it revealed a tall stone creature that had a round body with a long tail.

"Welcome trespassers." He laughed.

"Ah! OK, I'm surprised." Kuwabara shrunk back.

"I am Genbu of the four Saint Beasts. Do you have a request before you die?" he asked.

"Yeah, tell me how a Beast is a Saint. I'm lost." Yusuke said.

"This stairwell is the only way to the castle tower. You can either defeat me and go up on your own or be dragged there once you've been stopped by me!" Genbu roared as he slammed his tail down.

It created a small crater under his tail from the impact.

"Why don't you all attack me at once? Then the last one left won't feel lonely." He said.

"He's a rock, Urameshi! How're we supposed to fight against a talking rock?!" Kuwabara yelped.

Kurama stepped forward calmly.

"I will fight him." He said.

"Are you sure?" Yusuke asked.

"It would be ill advised for all of us to attack without first knowing his power. Besides, I can hardly let Hiei get all of the credit for this mission now can I?" Kurama asked as the mentioned fire demon scoffed and looked off to the side.

"Good luck." Dai said softly.

The redhead nodded as he walked forward to get ready for the fight.

"Want to die one by one? I can do that too." Genbu smirked.

"Hey, wouldn't we be better off dragging him back to that drop down ceiling or something?" Yusuke asked.

"Obviously you are underestimating Kurama. Do you know why I chose him to be my partner? To avoid fighting him myself." Hiei explained.

"Watch. He's more cut throat than I am when it comes to battle and unbelievably precise." He said.

"I don't know guys. He's still a talking rock." Kuwabara said.

"Have some faith, you wimp." Dai scolded.

"Sir, the first move is yours." Kurama smiled.

The others watched in anticipation for who would make the first move, tension in the air as Genbu stood hulked over and Kurama stood proud and gracefully.

Yusuke and Dai both gasped when they saw the creature's tail going into the ground and realized what he was doing.

"Hey, stone man's doing something freaky with his tail!" Yusuke yelled pointing.

"Watch your back!" Dai yelled when the tail moved out of the ground behind Kurama.

The redhead jumped back to avoid it, but he was slashed by it across his chest.

"Kurama!" Yusuke and Dai called out when they saw blood.

Kurama landed in a crouched position as Genbu laughed.

"Thanks to my body's structure, I can become one with any type of rock. With a little rearranging, I can grow my tail." Genbu said.

"Yeah, we're in trouble." Kuwabara gulped.

"And since this whole chamber is made of stone, I have you surrounded." The turtle like stone creature said.

"There's nowhere to run!" he roared.

"Oh man, now he's wounded." Yusuke gritted his teeth as Kurama stood up holding his wound.

"Maybe we should help." Kuwabara said placing a hand on his friend's shoulder as he looked afraid and Yusuke raised his fists in anger.

"There is no need. I've been hurt but he will not take me by surprise again." Kurama assured them.

"Ha! Wait until you see the full extent of my power. Then you won't be so confident." Genbu laughed as he started to melt into the ground.

"He's gonna put himself into the floor." Yusuke said.

"Do something, Kurama!" Kuwabara yelled.

Sadly Genbu was already in the floor, so everyone glanced around the room to figure out where he had gone and where he would appear.

"Now he could be anywhere." Yusuke said.

"I can't even sense Genbu's energy." Kuwabara said.

"Dai, can you sense him?" Yusuke asked.

"Not very well. The rock is hiding his energy so it's a little foggy." The witch explained with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, great." Kuwabara groaned.

Everyone was quiet as they waited, then Dai suddenly gasped as she got a lock on him.

"Behind you!" she yelled.

Kurama gasped as Genbu emerged from the ground and was about to punch him.

"Same old trick." Kurama said as he dodged it, but the tail was coming out from the other side of the ground.

"Watch for his tail!" Yusuke called as Kuwabara yelled and held his face in shock.

"He's getting attacked from both sides." Kuwabara said as the tail went to hit Kurama at the same time Genbu was going to punch him.

Thankfully, Kurama was able to dodge them and landed in a crouch while Genbu went into the floor again.

"Where'd that freak go now?" Kuwabara asked.

"Front!" Dai called.

The fox demon jumped back as Genbu emerged from the ground in front of him.

The tail went after him, but it was easily dodged as the redhead landed gracefully on his feet and turned to face the turtle.

He narrowed his emerald eyes as Genbu went back into the earth and laughed mockingly.

"You'll never defeat me by just running away." He said.

"Heh. Yes, Genbu. I believe you're right." Kurama smirked.

He then pulled something out of his hair making everyone look at him in surprise when they saw him holding a beautiful blood red rose.

"A flower?" Yusuke asked confused.

"Now that's weird. If he's trying to win the beast over, I don't think that's a good idea." Kuwabara said.

Hiei chuckled while Dai hummed as she thought back to what her grandmother had taught her.

"_Huh? What? You mean anything can be used as a weapon?" Dai asked._

_Kaede nodded._

_The two were standing in the middle of the forest that was behind the crone's (Crone being what an old witch is normally called) house._

"_Anything around you can be used as a weapon. Witches and demons have something in common. They can use the elements as their weapons." Kaede explained._

"_There are eleven elements to be used." She said._

"_What? I thought there were only four. You know the whole fire, water, earth and air thing." Dai said as she sat down on a large tree root._

_The crone shook her head as she touched a flower that was just beginning to bud._

_Her touch made the flower bloom right before the two spell casters' eyes, becoming a daisy._

"_Those are the four main elements. The rest are wood, metal, thunder, light, darkness, ice and finally spirit, though not everyone knows that spirit counts as an element." Kaede explained._

_The young witch nodded, but then her imaginary kitty ears and tail came out as she gave a confused look._

"_But why are you telling this?" she asked._

"_Because, one day you may fight a demon who can use the elements. I'm telling you this so that you can be ready." Kaede said._

_The wind then picked up as it blew the leaves off of the ground and around the two along with their hair._

"_Now, time to practise spells." The crone said._

"_Do they have to rhyme?" Dai asked._

"_Unless you want to write a haiku." Kaede said with a small smirk._

"_But that's even harder than rhyming!" Dai whined with waterfall tears._

"It's no ordinary flower." Kurama said.

The petals then fell off as they swirled around the room, creating a lovely shower of the blood red petals while the thorny stem grew into a long and fierce whip and the room was filled with the scent of roses.

"Rose Whip!" he said.

"Well…everything's coming up roses." Yusuke blinked.

"It smells girly. I don't think I like it." Kuwabara stated.

"Oh, sure. I guess he should be a tough guy like you and be obsessed with kittens." Yusuke said sarcastically making Dai laugh as he snickered.

"Shut up!" Kuwabara growled getting n the raven's face.

"It's really cool." Dai said as her kitty ears appeared and her tail swayed back and forth.

"Are you seeing this?" Yusuke asked as he and Kuwabara looked at her in confusion.

"Yeah. How does she do that? Are they even real?" the orangette asked.

Inside he was squealing in glee at how cute she looked.

What?

Tough guys can have a soft side for cute things too!

Genbu laughed making the two boys look at the turtle.

"You still don't understand your problem. What good would a fancy whip do if you can't tell where I am?" he asked as he disappeared again.

"Not being able to find you is a problem." Kurama said, but he had a grin on his lips and didn't appear to be worried.

"You just can't be scared, can you? Well, I'll soon change that." Genbu said.

Kurama didn't even need Dai to call out to find the beast as he jumped up at the ceiling near a stone pillar.

"Found you." He said.

And sure enough, Genbu came out of the ceiling and was slashed up by the whip, the look on his face being pure shock.

"It's over. The thorns on Kurama's whip can slice through any substance, including solid stone." Hiei smirked.

"Rose Whip Lash!" Kurama cried out as Genbu was slashed up into many different pieces.

The fox demon landed on his feet while everyone watched in awe as the body parts fell to the ground.

"Ugh, how did you find me?" the severed head asked.

"Ah, you're smell. After filling the room with the rose's sweet aroma, you're putrid adore was easy for me to find." Kurama explained with a bit of a smug smile.

"Well, that's no fair. Why's it none of my fights can end that quick?" Yusuke complained as the rest of the group walked over to the redhead.

"You beat him in one blow. Now that's what I call a whip." Kuwabara praised.

"It was amazing. I heard of demons that could do that, but I never saw it myself." Dai smiled in excitement.

"You idiots. It only looked easy because Kurama was the one fighting. If you had fought, you would have died in under a minute." Hiei said as Kuwabara gave him an angered look and leaned over with a raised fist.

"Why does everything you say make me wanna bash your face in?" he snarled.

"Huh." Hiei scoffed.

"Listen, I just happened to place third in Master Genkai's fighting tournament. The only ones who beat me were Yusuke and a evil monster." Kuwabara stated smugly.

"What's your point?" Hiei asked unimpressed.

"You little-!" Kuwabara growled as he grabbed him by his scarf.

"Children! Would you mind saving it for the bad guys?" Yusuke scolded.

The two glared at each other before they separated.

"OK, but he started it." the orangette muttered.

"I guess now we go up the stairs." Yusuke said.

Dai whined making them all look at her.

"We have a problem." She said with her eyes on Genbu.

"It seems my fight is not over." Kurama said as he sensed what she did.

Genbu's body then put itself back together while everyone watched in displeasure and worry.

"Who's beaten?" he asked as he placed his head back on.

"Not me." He said.

"Uh, guys, I think he's putting himself back together." Kuwabara said.

"No, really?" Dai drawled sarcastically.

"You can disassemble me all you like; I'll come back together every time. Actually, it makes for a very nice attack." Genbu said.

His body then came apart and went after Kurama, who then slashed his whip around to fight.

"Right in the head. Let's see him come back now." Yusuke grinned.

That didn't slow Genbu down at all.

Want to try again?" he mocked as he put himself back together.

"OK, that was luck." Yusuke said sounding worried.

"Let's end this. How'd you like to be stoned to death?" Genbu asked as he came apart and went in for the attack.

While Kurama was stuck in the mess, he spotted something red in the middle of the mass and was thrown back as he watched the red stone while the ordinary stone parts of Genbu's body got ready to attack him.

"They're coming back!" Kuwabara yelle.d

"Kurama!" Yusuke called.

"What the hell's he doing? He's going to get killed." He said as the fox demon stood up.

He took the attack as he stood against it and reached out for the red stone.

"You're not even fighting back now. The stones must have made you insane." Genbu said as he started to return to his normal form.

Kurama just laughed as he turned to him as things seemed to change for the turtle.

"Yes, I'm sure of it. Now you're laughing at nothing. Huh? Wait, how did you get on the ceiling?" Genbu asked confused.

The others stared in surprise at what happened.

"What's wrong?" Genbu asked.

The problem was his head was where his crotch was supposed to be while his arms and tail weren't in their right places either.

Yusuke, Dai and Kuwabara then burst out in laughter at the sight, tears falling from their eyes.

"I've heard o brass balls before, but come on!" the raven said.

"Yeah, I'd like to see him use the toilet." The orangette laughed.

"That's so wrong!" the mahogany haired girl cried.

"What did you do to me?!" Genbu demanded.

Kurama pulled out something red that looked like a heart made of stone by the way it was beating.

"I took this." He said

"What's that?" Genbu asked.

"I believe this is the equivalent of the hypothalamus of your brain. It regulates all the functions of your body including the process of putting you back together." Kurama explained.

"What?" Genbu asked.

"It seems to relay an energy signal when you separate making it very easy to find." Kurama said.

"You…can't do this. Give it back to me!" Genbu demanded.

Kurama then tossed it up in the air.

"Give it back!"

"Farewell." Kurama said as he swung his whip down and cut the stone in half.

Genbu shown with a yellow light before he burst into dust that rained down around the area, defeated for good.

"I don't think he liked that." Kuwabara chuckled.

"Good work, Kurama." Yusuke grinned.

Kurama then groaned as he stumbled and held his wound.

"Are you OK?" Yusuke asked as the group ran over to him as he was in a crouch.

"If Kurama is injured, we're going to have some problems." Hiei stated.

"I'm sorry, Yusuke." Kurama said.

"Nah, you've earned yourself a break anyway." Yusuke said giving a thumbs up.

"Yeah, I'll handle the next one." Kuwabara said.

"Come on." Dai said as she held a hand out to the fox demon.

She smiled at him and he returned it as he allowed her to help him up as the group all then walked over to the staircase.

To be continued…


	4. Byakko the White Tiger

"Byakko the White Tiger"

**OK, here is the next chapter. For those who care, four people want Dairama (Dai and Kurama) and two people want Daiei (Dai and Hiei). Not sure who to choose yet. Anyway, please enjoy and review!**

The group had stopped near a window to take a break before they met up with the next Saint that Dai had sensed before.

"Kurama, how terrible is that wound?" Yusuke asked.

The redhead still had his hand covering the slash he got across his chest, but it seemed to have stopped bleeding thankfully.

"Fine, as long as I can walk." Kurama said.

"He'll survive, but he's in no shape to fight. That means we have only four fighters left and one of them is worthless." Hiei said.

"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself, short stuff." Kuwabara grinned as he walked away from the window.

"Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but I think he meant you." Yusuke stated.

"Is that so? Then maybe I should show you something. What in the world did you think I was doin' for the last six months since you were off training with Genkai? Letting you get better than me? Nuh uh." Kuwabara said.

He held out his hand making Dai look at him as she sensed his energy gathering there.

"Spirit Sword!" he yelled out dramatically as the blade made of orange light appeared.

"Hey, watch it!" Yusuke called as the sword was pointed in his direction.

"You see what I've learned, Urameshi? I don't got to use the tip of that wooden sword to make it work anymore." Kuwabara grinned and chuckled.

"It's just my pure energy and I bet it could kick the crap out of your Spirit Gun." He teased.

"That depends on what finger I use." Yusuke frowned as he flipped him off.

"Well, as it turns out, he's only partially worthless." Hiei said.

"OK, wanna die?!" Kuwabara yelled.

"I dare you." Hiei grinned.

Kuwabara was about to charge him, but was stopped by Dai punching him over the head and sending him down to the ground.

"Would ya knock it off? He's doing this because he knows you'll act like that. Moron." She said with a frown.

The orangette rubbed his sore head as he stood back up.

That girl had one mean right hook.

"Yeah, yeah. Let him live. I'm pretty sure he'll be saying sorry when he sees what else I can do. Sword, get long!" he said.

He lifted his arm up as the sword extended, using more of his energy to do so as it right up into the ceiling.

"Wow, it even comes with a spear attachment." Yusuke said.

"I can make it any size I want it to be." Kuwabara chuckled.

"Why, trying to make up for something else?" Dai smirked as her mahogany kitty ears and tail appeared making her look like the cat that caught the canary.

Kuwabara blushed at that while Hiei smirked and Yusuke snickered at the joke.

"Hey, a girl shouldn't have crude humour like that!" Kuwabara yelled.

"She does if she's the captain of the male soccer team and spends her time around guys with crude humour." Dai shot back.

"Oh, so you're used to being on an all guys team, huh? Good to know." Yusuke chuckled patting her head as she sent him a cutesy grin.

Kuwabara frowned, but replaced it with a smile as his sword shrunk down.

"I know when Genbu showed up I got a little-what's the word?-freaked! But that's not gonna happen from now on my friends, because Kuwabara's got the good stuff." He said pointing at himself before he tripped over his own feet and fell down.

"Don't worry guys; it's just sometimes the sword makes me a little dizzy." He said as Yusuke leaned down to him with an annoyed look.

"You're not making us look good." He hissed.

His communicator then beeped, so he answered it to see Botan.

"Yusuke, you've got to hurry. Uh!" She gasped as she looked off to the side.

"What's the matter Botan?" Yusuke asked.

"Listen, Yusuke, I think the Saint Beasts have launched another wave of insects. I found a whole batch by an elementary school." She said.

"They're taking over kids now?" Yusuke said.

Dai gasped in worry as she thought back to the girl she had saved and her younger friend Iori.

She hoped they would be all right.

"That's right." Botan said.

"I thought you said these insects only like to take over the minds of depressed people." Yusuke said.

"Well, that's because depressed people are more easily influenced. The same is also true for children, but if the bugs get into them, I'm afraid-ah!" Botan gasped as she looked up.

Her face was gone then as the sound of yelling and falling back made everyone worry.

"OK, you're afraid, I get it. Now finish your sentence." Yusuke said as her face came back as she ran off.

"Sorry, Yusuke, but I'm being chased now." She said.

"You're being chased? By who?" he asked.

"By another guy under the control of the Makai insects and this one looks especially unfriendly." She said.

"Just keep running." He said.

It then sounded like she closed a door behind her as the area around her became darker.

"I've knocked all of the other victims by sneaking up on them." She said as a hand broke through a door that was behind her.

"Well, can't you call for help or something?" Yusuke asked.

"Or run away." Kuwabara said.

The sound of a fight breaking out made them all worry as the screen went black.

Hey, Botan! Botan!" Yusuke called.

The screen came back to life to show Botan wiping sweat off her brow as she sat down by a knocked out body of a man.

"Oh, wow. You got him." Yusuke said in relief.

"I'm not making a career out of this. You go and destroy that whistle before I have to fight this entire city." She said.

"Right." Yusuke said.

The area then shook as some creature gave off a loud roar, the group looking around in worry of the next beast that they may be going up against.

As the roar kept going on, the ceiling started to crumble around them.

In a few minutes it stopped.

"I don't know what kind of monster makes that sound, but I've got hunch it's our last enemy." Kuwabara said as he clenched his fist.

"Yusuke!" Botan called.

"Sorry, I'll have to call you later." He said.

"Wait!" she yelled, but he hung up on her.

The roar came off again making the walls and ceiling shake around them.

"It's Byakko and he doesn't sound very pleased." Kurama said.

"Let's go." Yusuke said.

The group all then ran off to avoid getting hit by the ceiling as the stone blocks started falling down, crumbling all around them as they ran as fast as they could.

"This is dangerous!" Kuwabara said as he looked back.

The group then ran off into another room to escape the debris and soon found themselves running up a stair case that led to what looked to be outside of the castle with a large tiger looking demon with a green mane wearing a tattered toga standing in front of them on the other side of the path that would lead into the rest of the castle.

Lightning then flashed around them as everyone stared at the beast.

"Tiger." Hiei said.

The tiger, Byakko, was an ugly beast with large muscles and he whipped his lion like tail down onto a boulder and smashed it.

Kurama, Hiei, Yusuke and Dai all took a stance to get ready to fight or defend themselves, but Kuwabara was shaking in fear at the sight of the monster.

"Intruders will pay for coming this far into my territory." Byakko growled as he then gave off another roar.

"It's huge!" Kuwabara yelped.

"It's a pity they don't have him in a zoo." Yusuke joked.

"I'll go." Hiei gave a slight chuckle.

"Back off! Didn't I say I'd take the next one?" Kuwabara said defensively as he stepped away from the insulted fire demon.

He then started walking forward, but paused when the tiger growled at him.

"Do not think your dominate because you tore apart Genbu. He was weak! He could talk to the demons in the city by prowling through the castle walls. That is why we didn't kill him ourselves. But I am a real beast. I have been caged in this place for too long without prey, without bones, without blood…until now. Humans! I will rip you apart and eat you myself!" Byakko yelled.

"Gee, how nice." Yusuke said.

"I'm sorry, was that supposed to scare us? I just feel bored." Dai sighed making Kurama and Hiei look at the girl to see that she was telling the truth.

She looked calm and relaxed as she stared at the tiger with a bored look on her face, almost like she was used to things like this and they didn't affect her much because of her experience.

"Hiei, Kurama." Byakko said making the two demons tense up as they met the tiger's eyes.

"I'll feed your body to the fugaki!" he roared yet again.

The path around them crumbled away making it a narrow way for only one person to walk on and Kuwabara just so happened to be the person standing on it.

The part of the castle that was behind them also crumbled away making it hard for them to go back, but the tower they came out of was still there.

"Apparently this guy likes breaking things with his own voice." Yusuke said.

"It's a long trip to the ground. I'll send you all there with my roar unless you fight me. Of course, you're weak bodies will be broken either way." Byakko said.

"Monster, he thinks he's so tough!" Kuwabara said as he went to run off, but was held back by Yusuke.

"Kuwabara-"Yusuke was cut off.

"Step off!" the orangette yelled as he pushed his friend over to Kurama, who helped steady the raven.

"Damn it." Yusuke groaned.

"You really think you can beat him?" Hiei asked.

"Well, of course, half-pint. In fact, I'm not scared at all." Kuwabara said as he brushed his hair back looking confident.

"So I guess your legs are shaking out of eagerness?" Yusuke said.

Indeed, the buff male's legs were shaking to prove he truly was terrified.

"Leave me alone, Urameshi! I'm just scared of heights!" he yelled as he started to slowly walk off.

"This isn't the time to pretend you're tough." Yusuke said through gritted teeth.

"I said leave me alone!" Kuwabara yelled back at him.

"You don't believe you can overpower me with just one human, do you?" Byakko sneered.

"Let's fight, Byakko-monster!" Kuwabara yelled.

"That's original." Dai muttered.

Byakko then burst out into laughter.

"Oh, please! I can't stay angry if you make me laugh." He chuckled.

"I'm serious! Come down here so that I can knock your lights out." Kuwabara said as he cracked his knuckles.

"Stop it. I can tear you into little pieces with nothing but the hairs on my mane." Byakko said.

"Oh, really?" Kuwabara said.

The tiger then pulled out about four strands of his green hair and then breathed on them, wind casting them over to Kuwabara as they glowed and transformed into four green boar like beats with fangs, lion tails and beady blue eyes as drool dripped from their mouths.

"These beats are a small part of myself. Like me they are hungry and you are the perfect new meat. They don't like sharing either, so you'll be in the middle of a little tug of war." Byakko said as the beats attacked.

Kuwabara was slashed by one of the beats, the sight of his blood as he fell to his knees making his friends grow tense with worry.

"Kuwabara!" Yusuke called.

The buff male pushed himself up.

"That was a freebie." He said as he called out his Spirit Sword.

"Ah, so you can use your spirit energy as a weapon. Very impressive, but I'm afraid it won't aid in your survival for very long." Byakko said.

The beasts went after Kuwabara, so he charged in and started swinging his sword around at them, but one managed to draw more draw from him.

"Oh no. He's dead." Yusuke said.

"Get your back against the wall!" he yelled at his friend.

"Come here." Kuwabara said as he charged at a beast and swung at it, but it jumped over him and landed behind him.

"He has no strategy. He's just swinging his sword with the grace of a fly swatter. That's no way to survive." Hiei said.

Dai whined as she watched Kuwabara fall to his knees as he was swarmed by the beasts yet again, blood spraying around him.

"KUWABARA! Let me take him instead. I know you wanna fight this one, but there's way too many things to swing your sword at. My shot gun blast just makes more sense, OK? Come on, Kuwabara. Please!" Yusuke yelled.

It was getting very hard to just stand by watching this horrible sight while Byakko just chuckled at the scent of blood in the air.

"If you're going to take the time to switch, you might as well all fight me at once. After all, nothing gives me more pleasure than a big group kill." He said.

"OK, Kuwabara, I don't care if you retreat or not. I'm coming in to help." Yusuke called.

"Stay right there! I'm not asking for help and if you come up here, I swear I'll turn this sword on you. I'm no wimp, Urameshi, and I'm not stopping unless Byakko comes and kills me himself." Kuwabara said stubbornly.

"Don't say that." Yusuke said.

"He's lost too much blood." Dai frowned sadly.

"If that's your choice of death, then fine. Beasts, you may now tear off his arms and legs and divided them amongst yourselves. But leave the body for me so that I can finish him." Byakko said.

The beats all then charged at Kuwabara again.

"Sorry monsters, but you can't. genkai just fixed these arms and I'm not breaking them again." He said as he ran off at them and swung his sword at them.

Yusuke groaned in annoyance and worry before he then ran off to get closer to the fight, Kurama and Hiei watching in confusion while Dai nearly bit right through her lip.

"Hey, don't die for being stubborn you dope! Let me take over! There's no way you can beat all four of those beasts by swinging your sword around. Think about it!" the raven yelled.

"He's right." Kuwabara said as he looked back at him.

"Kuwabara!" Yusuke called.

The orangette seemed to be thinking about something as he looked at the narrow path and the tower behind his friends.

"He's right." He said with a grin.

To everyone's surprise, he then started running back to where his friends were with the beasts chasing after him while Byakko laughed.

"After all that, he finally had enough sense to retreat, but it's too late now. Go on you beasts! Chase him back to his friends and then eat them all!" the tiger ordered.

"There, you see? In the end, the fool runs away." Hiei smirked.

"He won't make it." Kurama noted as he saw how fast the beasts were gaining.

Don't worry; I'll go as soon as he screams for help." Yusuke grinned.

"Ha ha ha. You know you can't escape." Byakko mocked.

Surprising everyone again, Kuwabara stopped in his tracks and turned to the beasts.

"Who in the world said anything about escaping?" he asked as the beasts stood behind him.

He then made his sword get longer as it pierced the beasts through their mouths and came out their bottoms and it continued until the last one and the monsters were stuck together.

"Bleh. It's like a demon version of the Human Centipede." Dai stuck her tongue out in disgust.

"It's true, I couldn't win by swinging my sword, but I could win by stabbing them once I got all four of these suckers lined up." Kuwabara chuckled.

"Nice one, Kuwabara." Yusuke praised.

"Heh, yes he actually did something clever." Hiei said.

"Watch it, Hiei. No use getting jealous of me just 'cause I'm good." Kuwabara teased.

"But what are you gonna do now?" Yusuke asked.

"I don't know. It's just a monster shishcabob now." Kuwabara said.

Byakko growled before he then laughed.

"Those beasts are still a part of me and even though they're chained up, doesn't mean they can't chase you down. THEY JUST NEED MORE ENERGY!" he roared.

The beasts were covered in red light as they grew in size and turned purple.

Kuwabara cried out in shock as he then turned and ran away, still holding onto the sword and pulling the beasts with him.

Kurama and Yusuke took a step back to the left while Dai and Hiei stepped back to the right as he led the beasts around the tower.

"Do you think he knows it's a circle?" Hiei asked as the others watched in confusion.

The end of the sword was reaching back to where Kuwabara was running and he grabbed it and he brought the hilt to the tip of the blade.

"You just twist and seal." He chuckled as he did so.

He stepped back so that everyone could admire his work.

"I don't believe this." Byakko gaped.

"That's a little move I like to call my Spirit Sword Monster Beast Donut." Kuwabara said proudly while Hiei groaned in disbelief.

"Idiot." He said.

"I think Monster Beast Donut is a perfect name." Kurama said.

Yusuke and Dai chuckled as they turned to face Byakko.

"Excuse me, sir." She said.

"I don't like this one." He said.

"You got chocolate with sprinkles?" they chorused.

This caused the tiger to growl in anger as his claws were curled and ready to strike.

"My prey mocks me? I will not tolerate that!" he growled.

"Huh, you best get ready to tolerate a lot more you poor excuse for a cat." Kuwabara said as he pointed at him.

"My own prey…I cannot allow this disgrace to continue." Byakko snarled.

He then gave out a mighty roar, lighting crashing down on the tower behind the group, destroying it and the four beasts.

Kuwabara stepped forward, whipping at his nose as he got ready to fight again.

"Tear up the castle however ya want, it doesn't change the fact that your little monsters are beat and you're about to be next." He said smugly.

Byakko punched the stone under him in anger.

"Stupid human…I'm the white tiger Byakko! One of the four Saint Beasts and the greatest predator who ever lived." He snarled.

"Yeah, I think you said that already and I'm Kuwabara, so let's go!" he said as his sword came out again.

The tiger jumped up from where he stood and landed in front of the human, the ground shaking from his weight.

Kuwabara stared up at him in worry when he saw the true size of the tiger who was snarling and grunting in a deep purr.

"What are the odds Kuwabara starts calling for his mommy?" Yusuke asked.

"Ha! I can smell your fear. Clearly your body knows something your brain does not." Byakko said.

"What's that?" Kuwabara asked.

"If your sword is your most powerful weapon, then you cannot hurt me. To tell you the truth, you'd be better off attacking me with your little fingernails." Byakko sneered.

"Well, I'm sorry if I don't believe you!" Kuwabara yelled as he charged at him.

He slashed the tiger with his sword, then stood behind him with a smirk.

"How's that?" he taunted.

Byakko roared as he then went to punch him, but the human dodged it and the jumped up, bringing the sword down on the tiger.

"OK, maybe the tiger will be calling home." Yusuke grinned.

"Something's wrong." Kurama said as he saw the tiger looked perfectly fine, but Kuwabara seemed to get weaker.

"Yes." Hiei said.

"What does he mean?" Yusuke asked.

"Look closely at the two fighters." Hiei said.

Dai and Yusuke did so and the girl's eyes widened as she felt Kuwabara's energy draining away from him, being absorbed by Byakko.

"Judging from the attacks, Kuwabara obviously has the upper hand, but by the looks of them, Kuwabara's the one taking all the blows." The fire demon said.

Kuwabara was panting hard, but he then saw what Dai was and was shocked.

"Could it be?" Hiei asked.

"Byakko's size. It's increasing." The fox demon said as the tiger grew.

"Now I see. Look down at Kuwabara's Spirit Sword." Kurama said.

"What the-?" Kuwabara asked as the sword shrunk into a dagger.

"It's getting smaller." Yusuke observed.

"Byakko's feeding off of the energy to grow. It doesn't matter how many times Kuwabara hits him, it just makes that stupid flea bag bigger and uglier." Dai said.

"Exactly." Kurama nodded.

The tiger laughed at the horror on his soon to be prey's face.

"You finally caught me. I've been feeding off of every slash of your sword." Byakko laughed.

Kuwabara gulped as he took a step back, but shook off his fear as he made his dagger turn back into a sword, but he then stumbled to his knees as the tiger laughed again.

"Kuwabara!" Yusuke called as the orangette stood back up with his sword raised to strike.

"Are you crazy? Hit him again and he'll just get bigger! Kuwabara, don't be stupid." He said.

"Leave me alone, Urameshi! Nothing's gonan make me stop fighting now!" Kuwabara yelled as he ran at the tiger.

To be continued…


	5. Round 2

"Round 2: JUST DIE ALREADY!"

**Here is the next chapter. By the way, there is something added in here for SoraMythos9276. Please enjoy and review!**

"I'm never gonna give up on this fight." Kuwabara panted as his shoulders heaved.

Things weren't looking so good for him since Byakko was taller than before and had also gotten fatter and rounder.

"No matter how big you get." Kuwabara said.

"So, are you sure?" Yusuke asked.

"Positive. Kuwabara is helping him." Kurama said.

Kuwabara looked at the dagger of spirit energy he was holding, annoyance and determination on his face.

"This doesn't make any sense." He said as Byakko laughed.

"Why is it so hard to understand, human? Your weapon is made of pure energy and is feeding my spirit's appetite like a fresh slab of red meat. Unless you want to keep making me bigger and stronger, I suggest you throw down your sword." The tiger smirked.

"Huh. No way." Kuwabara said as he gave off more energy to turn the dagger into a sword.

"This is you plan? To feed me?" Byakko asked.

"That's right." Kuwabara said as he charged at him.

He jabbed his sword right into the tiger's mouth.

"All right." Yusuke said.

"This may not be good." Kurama frowned.

Byakko looked like he was choking on the sword, but he then also looked to be growing as Kuwabara's energy was being absorbed.

"Just let go." Yusuke said.

The orange energy crackled around the human and tiger for a few minutes until it faded away and the sword disappeared and Kuwabara fell to the ground while Byakko laughed.

"Thanks. You had more spirit energy on your bones than I thought. Eating all that nearly got me full." He said as he rubbed his swelled stomach.

He gave a surprised look as Kuwabara forced himself up onto his knees.

"I'm…not done yet." He said as a dagger sparked to life in his hand.

"Oh, man. This looks bad. Looks like his spirit sword's had a down size." Yusuke said as sweat trickled down his temple.

"I dare ya to come closer." Kuwabara glared up at the tiger.

"Ha! You can't even stand up any more. You're nothing but a wounded animal." Byakko said as he kicked Kuwabara off.

"Can we jump in now?" Dai asked.

She hated watching more of her friends getting hurt while she stood by and did nothing.

"Passing you will be the perfect exercise after my giant meal. As soon as there's room in my stomach, that's where you'll go." Byakko laughed as he stomped closer to Kuwabara's still form.

"I'm not so sure I can crack jokes about this. Kuwabara's really gonna get killed now." Yusuke said.

"No, there is a way." Kurama said making the raven and mahogany haired girl look over to him.

"Then say it!" they chorused.

"Byakko's body stopped expanding halfway through that attack. That indicates vulnerability." The fox said.

"So you mean he has a weakness." Yusuke said.

"Don't get the boy's hopes up, Kurama." Hiei said.

"I'm simply saying there is a chance." Kurama said.

"Yes, Kurama, maybe if you were the one fighting. But that fool would never be able to see it." Hiei said.

Byakko grabbed Kuwabara by his shirt collar and lifted him up with a chuckle.

"You once said you wanted to die." He said as he punched the orangette in the face and sent him flying to the ground.

"Darn." Kuwabara grunted as he pushed himself up.

"You told your puny human friend that you'd never stop fighting unless I killed you myself, remember?" Byakko reminded.

Dai bit her lip as she watched the tiger, sensing something off about him.

Was he growing weaker?

She gasped then as she remembered something.

Taichi has once overfed Agumon, so when he went into battle, he was slower in fighting and he couldn't fight properly or even defend himself.

Maybe that's what would happen to Byakko.

"Hn. It seems you've figured it out." The fire demon said making her look at him.

"In the end you'll get what you asked for. Remember that when I claw you into shreds." Byakko sneered.

"No, it turns out I've got something else on my mind." Kuwabara said as a small dagger appeared.

"Don't be worried. I'm quick to the kill!" Byakko roared as he reared back and got ready to hit him.

The human gave a battle cry as he stopped the attack with his sword, sparks crackling around them as he pushed the tiger off.

He then charged at the tiger and stabbed him in the stomach, more sparks coming off of it.

"Wait, Kuwabara! Don't be stupid!" Yusuke yelled.

"Kurama says there's still a way to beat him!" he called.

The sword was drained away and faded in smoke.

Kuwabara fell to the ground in exhaustion as Byakko laughed.

"Kuwabara." Yusuke sighed sadly.

"You filled me up so much with your energy, I don't think I have room left to eat your body." The tiger groaned as he held his stomach.

"Oh well, I'll just crush you into pulp for later." He said as he lifted up him foot.

Yusuke moved his hands in the form of a gun, getting ready to do something, but Kurama held her arm out in front of him.

"No, stop. It's not necessary." The fox said.

Tiger groaned as he stepped back from Kuwabara, his body seemed to be pulsing as it fought to hold in all of the energy he had absorbed.

"Looks like it worked." Kuwabara chuckled weakly as he pushed himself up.

"What worked?" Byakko asked in surprise as he held his stomach.

"It's like my sister always says; it's not good to eat too much food in one sitting." The orangette said.

"Sister, huh? That explains a lot." Yusuke grinned.

"Why you-"

The tiger was cut off as he glowed yellow as energy crackled around him and he then blew, his body falling off of the stone pathway.

"Down he goes." Yusuke smiled.

"The amount of the spirit energy Kuwabara transferred created a force that was more than Byakko's body could complain." Kurama said.

"It gave him an awful case of gas if you ask me." Yusuke laughed making Dai giggle.

"Quiet, Urameshi!" Kuwabara called.

Everyone looked over to see him kneeling down as he was breathing in the fumes around him.

"I'm trying to concentrate here, OK. I'm trying to breath in the guy's fumes. It's filled with my spirit energy." He said.

Everyone else walked over to him, some sporting weird looks.

"Actually, your energy returned automatically." Kurama said.

"Oh. Uh, well, you can never be too safe, right?" the embarrassed teen asked.

"Hey, I don't know why you're still on the ground, Kuwabara. I haven't even broken a sweat." Yusuke grinned.

"Very funny, Urameshi. You're taking the next one." Kuwabara panted.

There was a ringing noise indicating that Botan was giving them a call, so Yusuke answered it.

"Yusuke, this is Botan. Do you copy?" she asked as her face showed up on the screen.

"Sure." He said.

All of a sudden, Kuwabara popped up looking rejuvenated.

"Hey, tell her I say 'hi'." He said.

"How're things in Maze Castle? Please tell you defeated three out of four of the Saint Beasts by now." Botan pleaded.

"What?! Are you crazy, Botan? We've barely beaten two. These guys aren't easy." Yusuke said.

"I understand, Yusuke, but that's not fast enough. The city's losing it's grip. The mayor declared a riot alert thinking these people are just insane. So far, the police have detained most of those taken over by the Makai, but it won't be long before the police are infected as well." The Reaper informed.

"OK, I get it." Yusuke said as Kuwabara grinned wide as he leaned against the raven to see the bluenette.

"I hope you do, Yusuke. I really do." Botan said.

All of a sudden, she hung up on them, which caused a bit of worry, but they soon relaxed when she came back on a few seconds later.

"Sorry about that, boys and Dai. As you can see, I'm busy here too." She apologized.

Kuwabara then grabbed the communicator and pulled it closer to himself, but Yusuke still had his hand on it.

"Oh, see you later, Botan." He said, but pouted when the screen was already black.

"She hung up." The Detective said as he pulled his communicator away.

"Stupid. You can't be too injured if you're still flirting." He said.

"Shut up." Kuwabara muttered.

"Well, shall we go?" Kurama smiled.

The ground then shook as a familiar roar broke out, making everyone tense up as Dai rolled her eyes in annoyance.

How hard is it to kill that stupid flea bag?

"Don't tell me…" Yusuke said in disbelief.

"He's still alive and is mad." The witch confirmed.

The pathway was then starting to get cracks in it, bits beginning to crumble away from under the group.

"Hurry, it's collapsing." Kurama said.

The group all then ran off to the castle, everyone making it in time as the pathway all crumbled away down below them.

As they watched the debris, Byakko's laughter made them all turn to the large oval shaped doorway from where the sound was echoing from.

"So human, you've proved to be quite worthy pray." His voice rumbled.

"Hey, aren't you dead yet?" Kuwabara called down the stone hallway.

"Ha! Very much alive and to reward your strength, I welcome you into my lair. My room of hell." Byakko said.

"What if we say no?" Kurama asked as the tiger's laughter was heard.

"You don't want to say no." Byakko said.

"Just lead the way, Byakko. I'll go wherever you want." Kuwabara smirked.

They then all walked down into the hall, seeing nothing but stone walls until they finally found two metal doors and Yusuke pushed then open to reveal what looked like a cave with something glowing orange at the end and was giving off a wave of heat.

"That's great. Now we're walking into a preheated oven." The raven said.

"Who cares? As long as it leads to Byakko." Kuwabara said.

"OK, you go first." Yusuke shot at him.

"Come on." Kurama said to stop them.

Together, the five all walked into the cave, sweat starting to trickle down their faces, except for the fire demon, from the heat.

When they reached the end, they discovered that the source of the heat was a lake of lava that was about twenty feet under the ledge they were on.

Not only that, but there were also there large stone pedestals that someone could stand on to cross the lava lake.

"Give me a break. Heh, guess 'Room of Hell' wasn't just a clever name. That's…" Yusuke trailed off.

"Lava." Kuwabara said at the bubbling lake under them.

He tore off a bit of his sleeve and tossed it down to the lava to test how hot it was and the torn fabric disintegrated before it even touched the lava.

"Wow." Yusuke breathed.

"We better not fall into that, guys." Kuwabara said nervously.

Dai sensed their host making his entrance and looked up with a glare to see the tiger.

"A fine view, isn't it? This is my private chamber. I come here to…play." Byakko laughed.

"No way. He's back to normal." Kuwabara gasped.

"Monster, you piss me off." Yusuke said.

"As you've already discovered, this room is filled with lava that'll melt anything it touches. So does anyone have the courage to come and challenge me?" the tiger asked.

The mahogany haired girl glared harder at Byakko.

One thing you should never do is question the female leader of the Digidestind's courage.

If you do, then you better run for cover.

"You bet I do, circus freak! You think you've got so much power?" Yusuke yelled.

"Hey, leave him to me, Urameshi." Kuwabara said.

"Screw that." Dai spat.

The four males all looked at their sole female teammate, seeing her dark crimson eyes had lost the brown that was in them and looked like two pools of pure burning crimson.

"Dai?" Yusuke asked.

"You already had your chance to fight this guy and guess what? He's still there. Now it's my turn." She said as she cracked her knuckles.

"What? No way. He's mine!" Kuwabara said.

"Look, there are only four Saint Beasts. Kurama took out Genbu, you already had a turn with Byakko. Obviously, Hiei and Yusuke are gonna go after the last two freaks here. What was the point of me even coming if I just sit back and let you guys do all the work? I'm fighting, get over it and shut up." Dai ordered with a fierce glare.

Three of the males looked surprised while Hiei smirked at the fire the girl had inside of her.

She had some potential and it would be interesting to see what a witch could do in person.

Yusuke sighed as he looked at the orangette and fox.

"She has a point. Why not let her go for it?" he asked.

Kurama thought about it and nodded.

Kuwabara pouted and crossed his arms.

"Oh, all right." He muttered.

Dai smiled at that as she turned to face Byakko, a glare replacing her kind face.

She then walked forward, jumping from the ledge and onto one of the pedestals that were before her.

"Huh? What's this? Sending out the female to finish things off? What a laugh." Byakko chuckled as he pointed at the short girl.

Once Dai was close enough, she sent him a smirk.

"Aw, afraid you'll get your butt kicked by a human girl? I understand. After all, all the guys I beat wind up crying to their mommies later on." She mocked.

The tiger stiffened as he snarled at the girl, then roared.

"DAI!" Yusuke yelled in fear when he saw the ground under her crumble away.

She didn't even move to dodge it at all, so he was afraid she would fall into the lava.

What he and many others weren't expecting was for her to be standing in mid-air.

Dai looked down at the lava as the place she stood was now debris that fell into the lake and slowly started to melt.

"When you have nothing to say, do you always throw a tantrum and roar to destroy things?" she asked as she looked up at the stunned tiger.

"You…how can you be doing that? You aren't a demon. You don't have any spiritual pressure!" Byakko said.

"How is she doing that?" Kuwabara asked.

"You fool. Remember, Daisuke is a witch. Some of them can only cast spells while others have powers. She is the later." Hiei said.

Byakko's ears twitched as they picked up what the fire demon had said and he stared at the girl in front of him in wonder.

"A witch? You?" he asked.

Dai ignored that as she held out her hand, the boulders in the lava rising up from the action.

"How about we play a game?" she asked.

"Game?" Byakko asked.

"Yeah. It's called…dodge ball." She grinned mischievously.

The boulders then shot up from the lava and rammed right into Byakko, sending him back onto the pedestal behind him as the wind was knocked out of his lungs.

The boulders then floated around Dai as a wind seemed to pick up and blow her hair around her head.

"Whoa, so that's what she picked up in six months?" Yusuke asked with a smile.

One by one, the boulders was pelted at Byakko was he rushed to dodge the hits, but all that did was have more pedestals get broken and add onto the vicious attack boulders.

"Stop! You witch! Come face me yourself!" Byakko yelled, but fear was evident in his tone.

Magic was something he couldn't fight since he had no experience with it.

While this was going on, Kuwabara gasped as he felt his body lifting off of the ground.

"Huh? GAH!" he yelped as his arms and legs flailed around.

Hiei, Kurama and Yusuke were also being lifted up as they were moved over the lake of lava, Byakko completely oblivious as he was being hit from every direction by the boulders.

"What is up with this?" Yusuke asked.

Giggling made the four males look over to see that Dai was waving at them as her body was floating closer to the exit of this room and that was where their bodies were being lifted to.

"What's up?" Yusuke asked.

As soon as all five were safely placed on the ledge of the exit, the males all looked at Dai as she turned her attention back to Byakko.

"What happened?" Kuwabara asked.

"I see. She used those tricks to keep Byakko busy so that she could get us all safely over here." Kurama smiled once he figured out the witch's plan.

"Huh, nice." Yusuke said.

Dai then made the boulders all drop away from Byakko, the beaten tiger falling onto the platform looking tried out from the attack.

"Hey, Byakko!" she called.

"What, witch?" he groaned.

"You still hungry?" she asked with a smile.

He gave her a confused look.

"Well, I'm in the mood for barbeque." She smirked.

With a wave of her hand, Byakko was blasted with a wave of power and yelled as he fell down into the lava, dark smoke rising as the scent of burnt fur filled the room.

Everyone watched to see if he would rise, Dai sensing for his energy, but couldn't pick it up.

Either he was dead or the lava was blocking it.

When they didn't see the tiger, everyone relaxed and Dai stumbled back as she felt a bit drained.

Kurama was there to steady her yet again like at the Gate of Betrayal.

"Hey, you OK?" Yusuke asked.

"Yeah, I've just never used my magic this much in one day. I need to step up my training when I get home." Dai said with a smile.

The others all smiled back at her, save for Hiei who smirked.

"Man, that was pretty sweet. I never knew a witch could do that sort of stuff." Yusuke said.

"Yeah, it was pretty good. I wonder if I could do stuff like that too." Kuwabara said.

"That's impossible. Witches use magic and have no spirit energy. If you tried to do what she did…well, you wouldn't manage to do it at all." Hiei said.

"Oh, shut up, shrimp!" Kuwabara yelled.

The fox leaned down to the girl to whisper in her ear while Yusuke tried to get Kuwabara to stop yelling insults at Hiei for stating the obvious.

"Are you going to be all right?" Kurama asked.

Dai turned to his and gave a smile.

"Yeah, of course. Nothing can keep me down for long." She assured.

He smiled at her and nodded, admiring her strength.

Now they had only two Saint Beasts left and then they could destroy the whistle before things got worst on Earth.

To be continued…


	6. Seiryu the Blue Dragon

"Seiryu the Blue Dragon"

**Here is the next chapter, I hope you all enjoy and review!**

After the battle in the Room of Hell, the group of five ran up the stairs to the next level to continue on to defeat the next Saint Beast.

They reached the end of the stairs and stared in shock at the sight before them.

It was a room filled with many doors circling the room and they had no idea which one to choose.

"Ah! What? You're kidding me!" Yusuke gasped.

"Hn. It appears we have found a maze in Maze Castle." Hiei said making everyone look at him in slight shock.

Was that an attempt at a joke?

"Well I guess that makes sense." Yusuke said.

"We must beware. It's something of a legend." Kurama said making everyone look at him.

"In the beginning, before the barrier wall was erected around the city, hundreds of bounty hunters came in search of the Beasts. None succeeded. But the Beasts never left their tower, letting anyone who made it into the castle forfeit their lives to this maze. There are 15 doors, all but one leads to a dead end. There are no second attempts. Unavoidable traps lie in the incorrect passageways. So you see, a poor choice seals our fate." The fox explained.

Kuwabara and Yusuke looked freaked out by this news while Dai looked as impassive as Hiei did.

They figured it was a short person thing to not fear anything and take it on the nose without a care.

"OK, Mister Sensitive, this one's all yours." Yusuke said.

Hiei mentally scoffed at the fact that their fate was being placed in the hands of Kuwabara.

He knew that the one they should trust to lead them to the right passage was the witch since she had proved her amazing abilities in sensing danger, but no.

The foolish detective just had to choose the oaf that nearly got killed and continuously panicked over everything they faced.

"Don't screw us over." Dai said as she patted Kuwabara's arm.

She was able to sense which door was the right one quite easily.

After all, she felt a cold aura coming from around the door that was near the middle of the room.

Looking down to the left of the middle door, she found the source being the second door down from it.

Kuwabara also seemed to have caught onto to which was the correct door which made her smile.

"The second door on the left." He said.

"You heard the man. Let's go." Yusuke said.

"How do we know he's not making a mistake?" Hiei asked.

Dai placed a hand on his shoulder, making him look at her to see her nodding and he knew that she had checked as well to see if Kuwabara was right and that helped him slightly calm down.

"I'm sorry, shorty, maybe it's not your thing, but you're just gonna have to trust me on this one. I know. There's something big behind that door." The orangette said.

He walked over and pushed the metal door open with a creak.

"Something scary." He said.

Looking down, there was a small gray mouse looking up at him curiously before it skittered off with a squeak.

Kuwabara's face erupted in a freaked out expression as he jumped back with a yelp.

"I hate mice!" he yelped as he fell onto his bottom.

"And I hate snakes, but I never freaked that badly at the sight of one." Dai quipped as she massaged her temples.

"Gee, Kuwabara, and that speech of yours was getting so dramatic." Yusuke said sarcastically.

The group then all continued on into the next passage, looking around carefully as they went.

Soon they arrived at two large blue metal doors that had dragon statues standing on either side of them, lightning flashing outside and booming loudly.

"Are we supposed to be scared?" Hiei asked.

"Perhaps. That is the mark of the blue dragon. And judging from the odor, I'd say the Beast is inside." Kurama frowned.

"Yeah and he doesn't feel very nice." Kuwabara said.

There was a rumbling noise that sounded much like metal creaking and the group looked over to see the doors slowly open, a mist of frigid air flowing out.

Yusuke stuffed his hands in his pockets and led the group inside.

The room was a dark, faded yellow color with tall purple pillars, the doors closing behind them.

Dai was shivering from the cold due to that fact that she was the only one not wearing a jacket or had any large muscles to keep her warm.

"This fog's alive." Kurama said.

"This is a form of spirit energy coming from the Beast's body." Hiei said.

"You have done very well to come this far." A male voice said.

"But I shall no longer allow you to disgrace my Master." He said as the group looked for him in the fog.

"Where's that voice coming from?" Kuwabara asked.

"I don't know. Come on out, dragon! This whole hiding 'n' seek thing is getting pretty lame." Yusuke said.

The fog gathered in front of them as blue sparks crackled, then caused a small explosion as the five fighters covered their heads to protect themselves from the bright light and frozen winds picking up.

When it settled down, the group looked up to see a man with mint green skin and yellow eyes standing in front of them.

He was very tall with black hair and a mustache and tiny beard, looking very much like a Chinese man due to the hat and fighting kimono with pants he was wearing.

The top even had a light blue dragon on it, which made Dai feel a hint of homesickness due to the fact that it made her think of her own dragon partner.

"As you request." He said with his hands folded behind his back.

"A giant!" Kuwabara gasped.

"You may call me Seiryu. I am here now to end your lives intruders." He smirked and gave a chuckle.

"Well, he's no dragon, but he is ugly." Yusuke said.

"It is not wise to say such things to your executioner." Seiryu said.

He then narrowed his eyes as he sensed something, Dai's eyes widening as she also sensed it and groaned in frustration.

"It appears we have another guest." Seiryu said.

The males all turned to the door as they heard someone panting in pain as they stumbled to the door.

"Guys, I'm not sure how to tell you this, uh, but…" Kuwabara trailed off.

"It's coming from behind us." Hiei said.

Everyone watched as the doors were then opened by none other than their last opponent who looked very beaten up and had scorch marks all over his body.

"You must help me…" the tiger said.

"You're joking." Yusuke said in disbelief.

Byakko stepped into the room, Hiei grabbing Dai's arm to pull her back as the team all parted as the tiger walked into the room.

"Please, Seiryu." He pleaded as he stumbled forward.

"These cowards…they tricked me in my own lair. They hid their true powers from me and then sent out their witch to finish me off. You must help me recover." Byakko begged.

"That guy was knocked in the lava." Kuwabara said.

"What does it take to kill this guy?" Yusuke asked.

Seiryu glared at the other Beast, but his eyes also went over to see the witch who had caused this damage.

An actual witch with active powers was standing there in his lair.

"Weakling! How dare you dishonor us further?" Seiryu spat at the tiger.

"Please, Seiryu." Byakko begged as he stopped walking.

"You are no longer wanted here." Seiryu said as he moved his hands in a type of martial arts like movement.

"You are a disgrace." He said as he took a warrior pose, one hand facing outwards as his other was in a fist at his side as it glowed blue.

Wind was also picking up at his feet, turning into frozen mist as he gathered his power.

"No, Seiryu. I can help you destroy them. It was a small mistake." Byakko begged in fear.

"Ice Dragon!" Seiryu yelled.

Light and ice gathered around him as he thrust his fist out, sending the blast at Byakko and trapped him in ice, his face frozen in horror.

"What the-?" Yusuke gasped.

"He's frozen." Kuwabara stated.

To add onto the team's shock, Seiryu jumped up and perform a superb kick, shattering the ice and making the tiger break into different pieces.

He had just murdered his own comrade without a second thought or hint or remorse.

That infuriated Dai as she stared over at Byakko's head that had rolled away from the dismembered body.

"You were right about my fog's energy. By lowering it to sub-zero temperatures, I can wrap my enemy in ice." Seiryu said quite smugly.

"You heartless bastard! How could you kill off your own friend?" Yusuke glared at him.

"Seiryu…why…" Byakko's head asked as it gagged out purple blood before it finally died.

"He was a weapon, not a friend. Like a cheap sword, he rusted." The ice user said.

Looking over at the head, he then spat on it and to Dai's surprise and further rage, she saw that Byakko had a tear falling from one of his eyes.

She wasn't the only one who was angered at the sight of what had gone on before them.

"This race of Beasts has no loyalties. Alliances are born strictly to gain power." Kurama informed them.

"I don't care what kind of race they are, it's never right to kill your own teammate. Especially when they coming asking you for help." Kuwabara said.

"This guy's pushed me too far. He's dead!" Yusuke declared.

"Save your anger." Hiei said making everyone look at him.

You can take their leader. I insist this fight be mine." He said looking back at the Detective.

He then walked forward to face the ice master.

"Aw, shall you be first, Hiei?" Seiryu asked.

They both were silent as they stared each other down, then Hiei glanced over to Byakko's head.

Reaching up to his collar, he whipped off his cloak and flung it onto the head in one fluent movement, showing off not only his bare upper body and katana strapped around his waist, but also his compassion for the dead.

Seiryu gave a closed mouth chuckle.

"What was that? Tell me you're not feeling sympathy for this amateur." He said.

"From your actions at the gate of betrayal, I was hoping you had more of a warrior's spirit." He said.

Hiei gritted his teeth at that as his scarlet eyes narrowed in anger.

"He's a puzzle, isn't he?" Kurama asked.

"In times before, I've seen Hiei act with similar cruelty." He said as the fire demon took a stance and drew his katana.

"But something about Byakko's execution has caused great anger in him." Kurama said as Seiryu also took a fighting stance.

"Hiei seems to live by his own code with very complex rules, but one thing is for certain; never before have I seen Hiei begin a fight using such extraordinary spirit energy." The fox finished.

It was true, the fire demon was glowing blue as his energy rose.

"Good, as long as he kicks some ass." Yusuke said.

Dai paid closer attention to it though because she sensed two different signatures from him.

Above it was the feel of a fire demon, but deep down under it…there was something else.

It was like he was covered in a natural warmth, but deep within there was this frozen aura.

It was more pure and kind though while Seiryu's was cruel.

Hiei's color was a nice light green color, like teal while Seiryu's was very dark blue, like the color someone would turn if they were freezing to death.

"Why would a fire demon have ice inside of them?" Dai asked quietly under her breath.

Kurama was the only one who heard her, but kept quiet.

She would find out in time.

"I assure you, Hiei, it is not too late to join our ranks. Pastorate yourself before my Master and he shall give you power beyond what you have ever tasted." Seiryu said.

"Is that all you have to say?" Hiei asked as his energy picked up and mist began curling around the room.

"They're last words you know?" the fire demon smirked, which annoyed the ice demon.

"Fine! So that is your choice? Then you shall meet your death with the other weaklings." Seiryu said.

He then groaned loudly as he summoned up his own power, a bright light coming from him as the fog was blasted at Hiei, but he stood his ground as he held his sword up and used his own energy as a shield.

It cut the fog into two different blasts, going into two different directions and blasting a hole in the two walls on either side of the other four fighters who braced themselves from the impact.

"Hey, be careful." Kuwabara called after he stared at the hole on his right in surprise.

Who knew wind and fog could do that?

"Try blocking this!" Seiryu growled as he got ready to use his Ice Dragon.

"That freeze technique. Run!" Yusuke yelled.

As Seiryu sent the tack out at Hiei, the fire demon jumped up and did a back flip over the blue skinned demon, while the floor where Hiei once stood had a path of ice on it.

Chuckling, Seiryu turned to him.

"I'm sorry, I had forgotten of your impressive speed. Now let's try again!" he said.

Continuously, Seiryu tried to hit Hiei, but the fire demon easily evaded him, although he was getting closer to getting him and the others were watching on nervously, Dai nearly biting right through her lip as her kitty ears and tail came out, the ears lowered in worry.

"He's gonna turn the whole room into a hockey rink." Yusuke said.

"Not just the room." Kuwabara said.

The others looked over to see that part of his hair had been frozen.

"Hiei." Kurama said in worry.

Hiei had gotten his left leg hit with the ice and then landed on the floor.

"Hey, he's OK." Yusuke smiled.

"Yeah, don't scare us like that." Kuwabara said.

"No, his leg. He won't be able to run away." Kurama said with gritted teeth while Dai whined pitifully as her tail swayed in distress.

"Hmm. You see? No one ever escapes. Only beg for mercy." Seiryu said at the crouched fire demon who glared at him.

"With your leg frozen, you can't possibly move. I suggest you start groveling." The ice demon said as he got ready to blast Hiei with his ice power.

"What can he do?" Yusuke asked in worry.

As the Ice Dragon attack was sent out, Hiei used his sword as leverage to push himself up and jump at Seiryu, the two males striking at each other.

Dai blinked as she saw the katana slicing at the ice demon about…ten times before she couldn't see anything else from the speed.

Hiei's other leg and left arm were frozen next as he landed in a crouch.

"Hiei!" Yusuke and Dai called.

Seiryu turned to him with a grin.

"Ha. You have escaped, but you are wounded." He said.

Hiei then laughed as he pushed himself up.

"Why are you laughing?" Seiryu asked in confusion.

"So what if your ice tricks can kill your wounded friend? It won't kill me." Hiei said as he turned to him.

Flexing his arm and curling his hand into a fist, the ice shattered away to reveal his arm was fine.

His legs also returned to normal.

"That's…impossible!" Seiryu yelled as sweat trickled down his temple.

"I shall give…one final blow!" he yelled.

To everyone's surprise, blood slowly started to fall down from his head.

"I don't think so." Hiei said.

Seiryu then grunted and groaned in horror as he started to crackle like ice when it was breaking and he was glowing white.

He screamed as sparks and fog covered his body, the show fading away to reveal that he had exploded into nothing.

"When did he attack?" Kuwabara asked.

Yusuke and Dai ran over happily laughing.

"Don't feel bad, Kuwabara. I couldn't see it either after the initial hit." Kurama smiled as he also ran over.

"Shorty's a lot cooler than I thought." Kuwabara giggled as he ran over to the rest of the group.

Dai was hugging Hiei, laughing as the demon stood stiff in her embrace while the others watched this in amusement.

While this was going on, the ice around the room melting away quickly.

When Dai let Hiei go, he made a display of sheathing his sword.

"You made French fries out of that guy." Yusuke complimented as he pumped his fist.

"Hiei, how many times did you cut him?" Kurama asked.

"Only sixteen." Hiei stated.

"Sixteen? Damn it. And here I could only keep track of seven or eight." Yusuke sulked.

"Really? I only saw ten." Dai said making him sulk further.

"That's nothing meager. After the first hit, I only saw flashes of light." Kurama said as he looked proudly at the two humans.

"I couldn't even see the flashes." Kuwabara sulked also as he slumped forward.

"Man, this isn't good. If you use those moves the next time we fight, I'm gonna be screwed." Yusuke chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Maybe." Hiei said as he turned and walked off.

"Hiei?" Yusuke asked curiously.

"I thought for sure he was gonna say 'Well, of course, you fool.'" Kuwabara said in a bad impression of the fire demon with his hand over his eyes in a salute fashion as he stared off at Hiei.

"Hiei is going through a tricky change. It appears he's beginning to like you two." Kurama smiled down at Yusuke and Dai.

The two looked over at Hiei as he lifted his cloak off of Byakko's head and placed it back on, the head glowing a light green color as it faded away into nothing.

The group then started running into the next room, going down a hall to meet up with the last Saint Beast.

Suddenly, Dai looked up as she heard the sound of a flute being played.

She got a very bad feeling.

Kuwbara felt the same as he gasped and stopped running.

"What now? Git cramps?" Yusuke asked.

"My brain just felt like an ice cube. Something bad's happening. Something back on earth." The orangette said as he looked off to the side.

"No telling how long we've been here. The Beasts have most likely organized a counter assaults using the Makai." Kurama said.

"Only one more. Let's not waist time." Hiei said making Yusuke, Kurama and Dai nod at him.

The five all started running up the stairs, hoping to defeat the last Saint Beast before something terrible happens.

To be continued…


	7. Suzaku the Red Phoenix

"Suzaku the red Phoenix"

**Here is the next chapter. Please enjoy and review!**

"Hurry up!" Yusuke called as they ran outside, lightning crashing in the sky.

"Shut up!" Kuwabara called.

They were heading towards a tower that was in the middle of a courtyard where the last Saint Beast was waiting on them, along with the whistle.

Lightning kept crashing down as they got closer to the tower, making it a bit difficult to see since the light blinded them.

The group soon stopped.

"What the hell is that thing?" Yusuke asked as he looked at the tower when they got a better view of it.

"That's the watch tower. I'm sure that's where he's hiding." Hiei said.

"Fine, then let's drag him out." Yusuke said with a raised fist.

They all started running off again, Dai staring at the tower nervously as she felt the power from the leader of the Saint Beasts.

While they were running, the communicator mirror started to ring so Yusuke pulled it out to see what Botan wanted this time.

"What now?" he asked.

"Small problem." Botan said.

Her face was on the screen as well as a girl with brown hair with matching eyes dressed in a light blue school uniform with a yellow tie.

She looked confused and scared.

"Gah! Keiko?!" Yusuke yelped in shock.

"I had to pick her up from school, Yusuke. It seems that every infected person in the area is looking for her." Botan said.

The group stopped so that they could hear what was going on now.

"What?" the raven asked.

"And I don't think they want to talk. I'm almost certain they mean to kill her." The Reaper said.

"Did you say 'kill'?!" Yusuke asked.

"So, that's what my premonition was." Kuwabara said as he looked just as mad as Yusuke was that their friend was being chased.

"The Beasts must be using the Makai Whistle to order the-"Botan was cut off as the bushes behind her moved.

"Cockroach!" someone yelled behind the two girls.

There was the sound of yelling and a fist slamming into a wall when the screen went black.

"Botan, are you there? Botan!" Yusuke yelled.

"I don't have a good feeling about this." Kuwabara said.

"We've got to smash that whistle as fast as we can." Yusuke said.

With that, the five all started running again to get to the tower and end things before Botan and that other girl were killed or badly hurt.

When they were about 15 feet away from the entrance, they stopped when more lightning crashed.

"OK guys, that is a spooky watchtower." Kuwabara said.

"The last Beast should be on the top floor." Kurama said.

"Then let's climb some stairs." Yusuke said as he walked forward.

"Wait!" Dai called making everyone look at her when she sensed something coming from underground.

"Something's coming. It's like…a swarm." She said.

With that knowledge, they all looked over to the tower to see two underground cave openings on the other side of the courtyard, the tower between it.

Out of them came a naked green skinned man that had shaggy seaweed looking hair and he was moaning.

More followed him out, looking like zombies with yellow eyes that had no iris or pupils.

"Hey, who are those people?" Kuwabara asked.

The zombie looking creatures all continued to come out, a small army of them there.

Dai observed them and was shocked to see that they had no pulse or even seem like demons at all.

Just what were they?

"Whatever those guys are, they sure are a lot of them. It's gonna take us about a year to beat them all." Kuwabara said.

"Yes, considering our time restraints, this could be a real problem." Kurama said.

"I've had dealings with cultivated humans before. They do not feel pain or fear." Hiei said.

"How twisted do you have to be to turn humans into monsters like that? I think Keiko's in some serious trouble." Kuwabara said.

"Like hell she is! Stupid monster-humans trying to slow us down. I'm blowing them all away with my Shot Gun." Yusuke said as he raised a fist.

Before he could do anything, Kurama placed a hand on his back to stop him.

"Let's use our heads." The redhead said.

"What? You want me to head-butt them?" Yusuke asked in disbelief.

Dai groaned.

And Miyako called her stupid?

"It's not wise to waste your spirit power. The more impatient we are, the more mistakes we'll make." Kurama said.

"Well, how is head-butting gonna help? My Shot Gun is the only way we're gonna get past 'em." Yusuke said.

"No." Hiei said making the others all look at him.

"So, you got an idea?" Kuwabara asked.

Hiei nodded as he walked to the front of the group.

"Set your eyes on the first tower window. That is your door." He said.

True enough, there were three windows on the first part of the tower, but the middle window was right in front of them while the other two were faced more to the sides.

"Well, I'm sorry Mister Mysterious, but it turns out I forgot to bring my pogo stick." Yusuke snipped.

"And I forgot to bring a plane." Dai quipped.

"Yeah, how do you expect him to jump that high?" Kuwabara asked.

"I'll need you to listen closely." Hiei said as lightning crashed yet again.

He walked back over to the group as he explained his plan, the others nodding while Kuwabara walked about five feet away from them and kneeled down to the ground with his arms pumped to prepare himself.

"You best not blow this Kuwabara." Yusuke said.

"Don't worry, I'm like an ox." The orangette said as he stood up and took off running.

Kurama then stared running, then it was Hiei and Dai who was followed shortly by Yusuke.

"Just do me one favor you guys; try not to dig in with your shoes, OK?" Kuwabara panted as he ran at the cultivated humans.

"Shut up and keep running!" Yusuke yelled.

Kuwabara barreled his way right through half of the creatures before he stopped right in the middle of the crowd.

"All right, let 'er rip!" he called as he prepared his body.

Kurama jumped up onto his shoulders, making Kuwabara cringe a bit at the pain.

Hiei then jumped up, using Kuwabara's back as leverage to get up onto Kurama's shoulders which made the orangette groan.

Dai then used Kuwabara's back to jump up onto Hiei's shoulders, then waited for Yusuke to make his jump.

Yusuke used all of their backs until he jumped up off of Dai's shoulders, the force sending the human ladder tilting forward as Yusuke sailed through the air to get to the window.

Before they fell, Hiei grabbed Dai bridal style and jumped to the ground safely as Kurama did the same, but Kuwabara wound up falling ace first onto the ground.

"It'll be close." Kurama said.

They watched as Yusuke went up, reaching for the window and managed to grab at the ledge.

"We did it!" Kuwabara chuckled.

Yusuke then pulled himself up into the window, then threw a smirk down at them.

"Ha, remind me to try out for the cheerleading squad. You guys have fun with the vegie heads!" he called down to them.

"Don't die on me, OK?" Kuwabara called.

"Kick his sorry butt!" Dai called as Hiei set her down on her feet.

Yusuke gave them a smile and thumbs up before he ran off to go fight the remaining Beast.

Groaning sounds made the four turn to see that the cultivated humans were gathering around them, ready to attack them.

"Heh, poor guys. I'm gonna feel bad kicking your butts!" Kuwabara yelled as he started throwing punches.

Kurama pulled out his rose and turned it into his Rose Whip, slashing many of the creatures at once.

Hiei then used his speed and katana to take them out while Dai started thinking up spells to use.

She then turned them into trees, their bodies slowly growing roots and transforming into trunks as they became trees.

While this was going on, Dai heard the sound of a flute being played and looked up at the tower from where it was coming from.

One of the cultivated humans was going to jump her then, but Hiei ran in and scooped her up while he sliced the creature with his katana.

The fire demon then set the witch down on the ground, then frowned at her.

"Pay attention to the battle." He said.

"But…I heard a flute playing." She said.

He looked stunned at that.

"You can hear the Makai Whistle?" he asked.

"I guess." She shrugged.

Another group of the cultivated humans attacked them, but Hiei slashed his katana at them while Dai flung them back with her magic, but she was getting tired from using her powers for so long.

Six months she should had been focusing more on her stamina and magic control to see how long she could use them for instead of bothering to learn the history and traditions of witchcraft.

There was then a release of Yusuke's spirit energy that Dai felt, but ignored it as she focused on putting her years of soccer to work as she ran from the attacks of the cultivated humans and then sent them flying away from her.

She then felt worry consume her as she felt the demon attack, lightning striking down.

Her eyes widened when she figured it out.

Lightning was the last Saint Beast's power.

Yusuke was in big trouble if he didn't find a way to deflect the lightning away from him or create a barrier of some sort.

Either way, he needed to come up with a plan of action soon if he wanted to survive.

Dai just hoped he destroys the whistle first though.

To be continued…


	8. Mission 1: Complete!

"Mission 1: Complete"

**Here is the next chapter. Please enjoy and review!**

Another horde of cultivated humans came at Dai as she was breathing hard from the ones she had taken out already and she was getting very annoyed.

If she had enough energy left, she would have levitated them all up to the window to escape the freaks and to help out Yusuke, but she was pushing herself above her limits.

She was about to fling them back, but she was tackled by three of them from behind and fell to the ground, scraping her palms.

"Get off!" she yelled.

A wave of her magic shot them off of her just as Hiei flitted over and pulled her up into his arms as he jumped over to where Kurama and Kuwabara were huddled together, the exhausted girl leaning into the fire demon's hold.

"We got to find some way to get to Urameshi." Kuwabara said.

"Yes, Kuwabara, I have strong sense that he needs our help." The fox said.

Hiei grunted in agreement.

"I hope you guys are behind me!" Kuwabara yelled as he ran at the swarm.

The two demons flowed, Hiei being more careful now that he had the witch to protect as well.

She wasn't able to move; she was at least able to fling the cultivated humans back into Kurama's Rose Whip as he sliced them up or threw them back to stun them as Hiei used this as his chance to cut them up with his katana.

Dai gasped when she felt something that made her heart break.

"Yu-suke…" she whimpered.

He was dying.

Hiei looked down at her as he cut down four cultivated humans.

"We'll never get up there." Kuwabara panted.

He too was becoming exhausted from all of the fighting he had done that day and also from using his spirit energy too much.

Kuwabara looked up to the window with a thoughtful expression.

With a determined look, he made his sword appear and started running as he held it like a javelin as he went.

"I'm coming, Urameshi! Sword, get longer!" he yelled.

The sword grew to about ten feet long as he stabbed it into the ground and he then vaulted himself towards the window.

"Here I come!" he yelled.

Sadly, he missed the window by about two feet as he rammed right into the wall and he started to slip, but dug his fingers into the cracks between the stone bricks so he wouldn't fall, despite the pain he felt in his face and chest from the impact.

"I nearly made it." Kuwabara grunted.

Meanwhile, Kurama and Hiei had taken out all of the cultivated humans and were running to the entrance as Dai tried to stay awake as she was carried by the fire demon.

The two demons then looked up at the orangette with curious expressions.

"Kuwabara, what are you doing?" Kurama called up to him.

"We've cleared a path to the entrance. Quit fooling around!" Hiei scolded as the two demons ran inside.

Kuwabara then lost his grip and fell to the ground, whimpering in pain before he shot up and followed the others inside.

They were running up yet another staircase to meet up with Yusuke, but were stopped by another swarm of cultivated humans stalking down the stairs, cutting them off.

"Dah. They never end." Kuwabara groaned.

"Let's not waste more time." Hiei said.

Dai moved to get out of his arms and she leaned against the wall as she tried to regain her strength.

"What are you doing?" Kurama asked.

"I'll just be in the way. Keep going. I'll join in when I can." She panted.

The three males nodded as they started fighting the cultivated humans, beating them back or killing them.

The witch sensed Yusuke's power then catching back up to him, as if he gained new hope as he got ready to end the fight.

'If Yusuke can still go when he's being tortured, then so can I.' Dai thought to herself.

Pushing away from the wall, she thought hard on what to do next as the cultivated humans started coming after her.

"Forces of nature, listen to my desire. End these creatures' lives in a pyre. Set them on fire!" she said.

The group coming after her then stopped and moaned loudly as they were erupted in flames, quickly burning to death and soon turned into ash that fell to the floor.

Kurama, Hiei and Kuwbara looked back at her when they felt the flames and heard the spell, amazed to see that she had taken out half of the zombie like creatures.

"O…K that does it. When I get home…I am so getting back into working out." Dai breathed.

"Nice. Let's keep this up. We'll be up there with Urameshi soon enough." Kuwabara said as he started throwing hits and kicks at the cultivated humans left.

The demons and witch nodded as they went into the fight as well, giving it their all to get rid of them.

Just as they defeated the swarm, another one came stumbling in making the four stand together to brace themselves.

"This blows. By the time we plow through all of these weirdoes, we'll be too tired to help Urameshi." Kuwabara said.

"Tired hands are better than none." Kurama said.

"Do what you like. I'm not stopping." Hiei said.

Kurama nodded to him as the two demons charged at the swarm, slicing away at them as Kuwabara jumped in on the fray with his Spirit Sword while Dai leaned against the wall as she tried to calm her rapidly beating heart from overexerting herself.

"OK, guys, I'm coming, don't leave!" Kuwabara yelled as he ran after the demons, but stopped when he saw Dai.

She looked so weak and fragile right then as she tried to stand up on her feet, so he ran back over to fling the girl over his shoulder and started running off after the demons.

The mahogany haired girl was fighting to stay awake, but her vision was blurring as she allowed Kuwabara to carry her up to the tower.

When the group was close enough to the lair of the Saint Beast going up the spiral staircase that was around a tall pillar and was purple with everything else in the room, the tower started to shake from the leader calling forth his power for a final blow.

"The biggest lightning eruption by far. Suzaku is getting desperate." Kurama noted.

"The attack will almost surely kill one of them." Hiei said.

"Don't say that." Kuwabara scolded as he turned to go running.

He was stopped when the hit struck again and the stairs started to crumble away in front of him, blocking off his access.

Then the rest of the stairs behind them crumbled away, leaving only about six feet of stairs to stand on as it was still being held onto the wall.

"The stairs." Kurama said.

"Now what're we gonna do?" Kuwabara asked.

The tower shook again as some of the ceiling started to fall.

If they didn't get to Yusuke soon, they were all going to be buried alive under the rubble.

Hiei threw his katana at the doorway, burying his sword right into it so it was inside properly while Kurama cracked his whip up at the katana, tying it around the katana and then pulled to test it to see if it would hold.

"Needless to say; hold on tight." The fox said.

Kuwabara set Dai back down on her feet as the three males swung over to the doorway on the whip, then Dai focused on floating up to the doorway, Kurama grabbing her hand and pulling her over to safety.

When a blast of life energy hit, the girl's crimson eyes cleared up as she suddenly felt her strength return to her due to her worry for her friend.

"Yusuke…" she whispered.

She pushed her way through the three males and took off to where the power was coming from while Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei ran after her.

They all made it into the lair to see that a human looking male with blonde hair and tiny red tentacles that were a part of his hair that hung over his lavender eyes and was dressed in a red tank top with a pink scarf, pink pants that were baggy and red flats had used an attack to multiply himself into seven people who were all shooting arrows of electricity at Yusuke.

"Urameshi." Kuwabara said.

Yusuke charged head on at the seven, then there was a huge explosion from the two different powers clashing.

He screamed in pain as the six clones and the original were all hit in the heart by Yusuke's blasts, killing them all along with a strange green parrot with a long blue mane and yellow belly.

"SUZAKU!" she cried before she was killed.

The whistle, which looked like a flute with a giant insect attached to it, was shattered.

As for the tower, the ceiling all came crumbling down on top of everyone, so the four who were remaining dodged or braced themselves for impact to save their lives.

When the disaster was finished, most of the building had places that were on fire.

One of the Suzakus, who must be the original, pushed himself up as he stared off at Yusuke as he was unconscious on the ground, his heart slowing down rapidly.

"I was wrong about you once again, Yusuke. It wasn't because you weren't human that I lost. I lost because you were. Feelings are you power. Touché, human. At last, I understand." Suzaku said.

Those were his last words before he fell forward, dying at last.

"YUSUKE!" Dai cried as she ran over to the raven haired boy.

She fell to her knees at his side as Kurama, Kuwabara and Hiei ran after her, the fox kneeling next to Yusuke as he pulled him up into his arms to check him over properly while Dai watched with tears in her eyes as she sensed his life fading away.

"Is he…?" Kuwabara trailed off, fearing for the worst.

"Let's go home." He said.

"I'm sorry; he's expended all of his body energy. His heart is stopping." Kurama informed.

Dai sobbed at this as her tears fell onto Yusuke's face as Kuwabara kneeled down next to her to look over his friend.

"Then I'll give him some of my own." He said making the demons and witch look at him.

"That wouldn't be very wise. Your body is still badly injured from Byakko. Anymore strain on it could kill you." Kurama explained.

"Me and Urameshi jumped into this deal together and we're both gonna come out alive or we're not coming out at all, OK!" Kuwabara stated.

He then placed his hands on his friend's chest as he focused on transferring some of his energy to Yusuke to jumpstart his heart while Kurama pulled Dai away, the girl's legs feeling like jelly as she tried to stand.

"Here goes, Urameshi. Come on." Kuwabara said as he glowed blue along with Yusuke.

"Well, I suppose now we'll have to return to living world carrying both of them on our backs." Kurama said in amusement.

"Or three of us if I can't stay awake." Dai moaned as her vision was blurring out again.

Her adrenalin rush from wanting to get to her friend to help him had faded away and she was close to passing out again to rest up.

"Like I said; babysitting." Hiei said as he looked over at Kurama.

"Here's what I don't understand; why would he bother saving her if he died in the process?" he asked referring to the girl that had been with Botan.

"Trust me, Hiei, there are reasons." Kurama said.

"Hn. Maybe for a person who's lived there, but I'd never do it. There are challenges enough without picking up other's slack." Hiei said.

Kuwabara had finished the transfer and fell unconscious on top of Yusuke, both still having their hearts beating.

They were slow, but at least the two were still alive and would survive as long as they got them to a doctor in time.

"If this is true, then why did you go out of your way to save Dai?" Kurama asked as the witch was now sleeping.

The fire demon grunted as he gave the fox a warning look.

(Later on a few days later…)

Groaning, two crimson orbs opened up to see that she was in someone else's house as she looked around curiously.

Reaching out with her magic, she sensed that she was inside of her grandmother's house and the crone was coming into the room at that moment.

Whining, Dai forced herself up in the futon she was sleeping on as Kaede opened the sliding wooden door, looking very annoyed.

"Unbelievable. Daisuke Midorikawa Motomiya, do you have any idea how luck you are to be alive?" the old woman scolded.

"Sorry, Grams. But there were innocents in trouble. I just couldn't stand by while all of this trouble went on." Dai said.

She then gasped as she sensed two other people walking in the house and were coming into the room.

"Nice to see you up." Said the magenta haired girl as she was dressed in a green school uniform.

"Jun? What are you doing here?" Dai asked her older sister.

Kaori, the mother of the two teenagers, was also at the door as she smiled at her daughter.

"Did you think that you were the only witch in the family?" Kaori teased.

"Well, she is the reckless one." Jun said as she sat down by Dai and held her hands up.

Dai watched in awe as her sister's hands glowed a pretty pink color, the warm light feeling the bruises and cuts she had gotten from her battles.

"I didn't know you had an active power." She said.

"We didn't know if you would be a witch. Mom has visions and didn't know if you would become a witch. She saw you in danger, but she assumed it was the digimon, not demons. I mean, you actually fought the Saint Beasts? You're gonna go down in our family history as the most powerful witch ever." Jun praised.

"I'm not. My magic shouldn't be what I rely on the most. I should be able to fight or else if the demons find a way to stop my magic, I'll be killed." Dai said as she clenched her fists.

Jun groaned as if she were feeling exactly what her sister was and gently took her hands, making crimson eyes look up into purplish brown eyes.

"Look, you might feel useless, but you're still alive. That's more than anyone can hope for. You never gave up and you used your strength to fight until you couldn't move anymore. Don't you ever put yourself down like that or else I'll smack you silly." The elder sister scolded.

Dai gave a grateful smile to her sister and nodded at her before she looked over to her mother and grandmother.

"How did I get here? I was in Maze Castle when I passed out." She said.

"You're friend…a fire demon I believe, brought you here and I called you sister to come heal you." Kaede explained.

"Befriending demons. Are ancestors would have heart attacks." Kaori chuckled as her mother shook her head.

Nodding at this, Dai stood up and started stretching out her limbs, sighing in bliss when they cracked and felt more loose to move around.

Jun scrunched up her nose.

"I hate it when you do that." She commented.

Her sister stuck her tongue out, so the magenta haired girl did the same.

"It seems we'll have to train further." Kaede said.

"Not right now. I need to go check on Yusuke and Kuwabara to make sure they're OK. They were worse off than I was. See ya!" Dai called as she ran off.

"DAISUKE!" Kaede yelled after the girl.

The three women ran over to the window to watch as the mahogany haired girl ran out of the house, intent on going to the train station to go visit her friends.

"That girl is impulsive, rebellious, hard headed…" Kaede muttered in annoyance under her breath.

"Kind, determined, courageous." Kaori said fondly.

The raven haired woman gave her mother a loving smile.

"She's the perfect example of an independent witch who would do anything for those she cares about and to save the world. Not many people are like that. Try not to be too hard on her." She said.

The crone just groaned as she went downstairs, but a proud smile graced her lips.

That girl is indeed a miracle.

Jun looked out the window as the wind blew in, her hair gently dancing in the breeze as a cherry blossom landed on top of her head.

"Be safe, baby sister." She whispered.

To be continued…


	9. Returning to Normal

"Returning to Normal"

**Here is the last chapter. After this, I will be making another part of this series focused on Yukina getting kidnapped. For now, please enjoy and review!**

When Dai had made it to her new friends' home town, she sensed for their energy and found that Hiei was flitting around randomly until he caught her scent and followed her to see if she was healed properly.

He watched her carefully as she ran off to the Kuwabara home, finding it by sensing for him and Yusuke, going inside to see that the orangette and fox demon were both fine while Yusuke was still resting.

Dai had insisted on having her doctor check him to fix their injuries and they all agreed to it since she wouldn't shut up until they did so.

At the Kuwabara home, the doorbell was rung and so Dai ran down to answer the door.

"Jyou!" she said, but was surprised to see Botan and another girl with short brown hair and matching eyes was standing there.

It was the girl that Yusuke had fought hard to save from the people infected by the Makai insects.

"Botan? What are you doing here?" Dai asked.

"We came to check up on Yusuke. Is he all right?" the Reaper asked.

"He should be. He's sleeping right now, but my doctor is coming over to check on him." Dai said.

"You use your doctor's first name?" the brunette asked.

"Oh, sorry. My name is Keiko Yukimura." She said.

"Daisuke Motomiya. Nice to meet cha." She smiled at her.

Keiko was surprised to see that the aura around this girl was making her feel more at ease and relaxed.

"Well, we'll go on up to see him. When your doctor comes, send him right up." Botan said.

With that, the two taller girls went upstairs while Dai closed the door with a sigh.

She hoped that Keiko girl was fine after being chased by those Makai zombies.

Suddenly, she sensed a familiar aura that made her smile as she opened the door to see a blue haired male with obsidian eyes behind oval shaped glasses.

He was dressed in a green button down shirt, cream pants and brown dress shoes with a medical bag slung over his shoulder.

"Jyou!" she called running over to him.

Jyou Kido was surprised that she had knew he was there, but smiled at her.

"So what happened that you needed me to come all the way out here?" he asked.

"Come on." Dai said taking his free hand and pulled him inside.

They ran upstairs to see that Yusuke was wide wake, everyone in the room turning to see Dai walk inside with the college student.

"Guys, this is Jyou Kido. He's an old friend of mine and my doctor." She introduced.

"Doctor?! That guy looks way too young to be a doctor!" Kuwabara exclaimed.

"You want him to work on us?!" Yusuke followed that disbelief.

Dai glared at them, her kitty ears and tail coming up looking all frizzed up like a cat that was yowling in anger at someone.

"For your information, Jyou is a great doctor. He's done all of my check-ups and given me all of my shots." She stated defensively.

Jyou shook his head in amusement as he opened up his bag and pulled out some bandages, cloth and disinfectant.

Not only that, but he had needles and thread for patching up scars along with a syringe and small glass bottle of morphine.

"Where the hell did you get this stuff?" Yusuke asked in shock.

"My dad's a doctor. My older brother and I have been training hard for years to become doctors ourselves, but Shu's more interested in traveling and dating a certain someone's older sister." Jyou said with a smile at Dai who giggled.

Kurama, Kuwabara, Yusuke, Keiko and Botan looked at them in confusion.

"Jyou's brother is dating my sister. Since Jyou's my friend and Shu dropped me off at home once, Jun met him that way and soon after they started dating." Dai explained.

Everyone nodded in understanding as Jyou got to work cleaning Yusuke's wounds, checking to see if he would need to do any stitching.

Botan looked to be gushing at the romance between Jyou and Dai's older siblings.

"Um, Daisuke. Why don't you go to Jyou's father for help? Why choose Jyou?" Keiko asked.

The child of Honesty looked back at the child of Miracles with a smile before he went back to work.

"She doesn't trust any of the doctors or dentists even. She always worked on keeping healthy and making sure her teeth were clean and had no cavities so she wouldn't have to go see them." He answered.

He remembered what happened once when she caught the flu and her mother tried to bring her to the hospital.

Yamato and Taichi tried to carry her there, but she grabbed onto the door frame of her room and hung on for dear life as the child of Courage and Friendship tried to pull her off.

Needless to say, the doorframe needed to be replaced.

"So you're scared of needles?" Kurama asked Dai.

"No, of course not. If I was scared of needles, then I wouldn't let Jyou near me with a syringe or even patch up a scar I got. It took 30 stitches." Dai said as she rubbed her back where that demon from those six months ago slashed her with his talons.

"She just has trust issues." Jyou said.

He finished with Yusuke and then moved on to Kuwabara to make sure his wounds weren't infected.

Later on, Jyou walked with Dai back to the train station, the witch smiling as she sensed Hiei watching after her.

He left after the two Digidestinds were on the train, Jyou asking about Dai's new friends and she told him everything that had gone on.

He was surprised with the news of demons, zombies and her being a witch, but stranger things had happened to them like fighting digimon that tried to destroy the world, take over the internet to release missiles to destroy Japan and America, so he believed her.

When they got back to Odaiba, the duo walked off down the street to go back to the apartment complex where the Motomiyas, Takanouchis and Yagamis lived.

"You know, I think you should tell the others about what happened." The child of Honesty said.

"Are you nuts?! It's bad enough that I told you, but telling the others will put them in danger. Knowing them is dangerous enough, but if they actually knew what was going on? There are demons all over the place. Normal humans can't see through their disguises like I can." Dai said as her protective streak for her friends grew.

"At least tell Ken. He is your best friend and Jogress partner. Tell him about this." Jyou offered.

The child of Miracles sighed at this knowing that she should tell her friends since they had all been through hell and back, but these demons were even more brutal than the Dark Masters, Vamdemon, Diablomon and all the other evils they had faced.

Not only that, but Dai was the one with powers so she could protect herself, but the others couldn't fight.

Well, Iori knew kendo and Taichi was really fast due to all his years of soccer, not to mention he and Yamato could punch and kick really hard with all of the fist fights they had been in, but other than that, Dai would need to constantly be there to protect them.

Her training would need to be stepped up all right.

"I'm gonna need to work harder." She said with her right hand on her cheek while she held her elbow of that arm with her left hand.

She then tensed up when she felt three auras she knew well and she sighed in misery as she knew the tongue lashing she would get from a certain child of Love and Purity.

"Work hard on what?" a female voice asked making Jyou jump in surprise since he hadn't heard her approach.

Turning, Jyou and Dai were met with the worried faces of Takeru and Hikari while Miyako looked pissed off with her hands on her hips.

"On an excuse for where you've been for the last ten days?" she asked.

The child of Courage, Friendship and Miracles groaned as she knew how much trouble she was in.

"We heard about the riots that were going on and got worried." Hikari said.

"We thought that maybe you got caught up in one and got hurt." Takeru said.

"OK, guys. Cool it. I have a reason for why I've been gone." Dai said holding her hands up defensively.

"Really? Enlighten us." Miyako said.

Biting her lip, Dai looked up at Jyou, who nodded his head.

She would have to tell them.

(Later on…)

A meeting of the Digidestinds was called that night at the park, everyone showing up while Mimi Tachikawa was on Skye on Koushirou's laptop to hear what was going on.

Ken had even made it from Tamachi, but he would pretty much cross the ocean for his best friend if she asked him to.

She had saved him from the darkness that had been tainting him for four years, offered him her friendship when everyone else was still distrustful of him for the terrible things he had done and helped him get over his depression and stopped him from almost committing suicide.

He owed her a lot.

When Dai had finished her story on what she had been doing, the entire group of ten stared at her in shock while Jyou stood at her side unaffected since he had already been told.

"You're a real witch?" Sora Takanouchi asked.

"There's no way that that's possible." Yamato Ishida said shaking his head, blonde hair following.

"Actually, with everything we have been through, it seems very possible." Iori Hida said with thoughtful green eyes.

"Believe it or not, everything I told you is true." Dai said.

"Then prove it." Miyako challenged.

The mahogany haired girl shrugged as she then levitated off of the ground and the other ten teenagers and the laptop with Mimi's face looking through the screen in wonder, soon followed her, some even yelping in shock or flailing their arms around in Taichi's case.

Thankfully it was night time and not too many people would be out to witness this.

"Do you believe me now?" Dai asked in amusement.

"Yes." Koushirou said as he looked around in awe as he realized that this wasn't a trick.

Soon they were all back on their feet, Miyako brushing her long lavender hair back in stunned awe.

"So you really are a witch. How cool! Do you have to wear one of those witches' hats? I bet you would look so cute in one." Mimi gushed.

That was the child of Purity for you and everyone loved her just the way she was.

"Oh, come on. I bet that whole hat, black dress, cauldrons and riding broomsticks thing is just a stereotype." Takeru said waving his hand in a dismissive manor.

"Actually, Grams told me that on All Hallows Eve or Halloween, witches can draw from the power of it to be able to become stronger. Riding broomsticks is actually possible. And as for the hat, it's supposed to help center the balance of your powers. And witches in the olden days wore black cloaks over their regular clothing to sneak out at night to hide from hunters so that they could gather herbs and cast protection wards." Dai explained.

Hikari and Sora giggled softly as Takeru slumped forward in disbelief.

"So the pilgrims all used the ancient traditions of witches as horror stories simply because they didn't understand them?" Ken asked with a smile.

"It makes sense. When faced with something you don't fully understand, people often jump to conclusions that it may be dangerous and they feel that isolating this thing or person would benefit them." Koushirou said.

"Yeah, that or burn them at the stake." Taichi said.

Yamato whacked him hard on the back for saying that.

"Actually, during the Salem Witch Trials, being burned at a stake wasn't the only way they suffered." Koushirou said.

"Many men and women were accused of being witches, but no one knew if they were or not." The redhead said.

"They weren't." Dai said sadly gaining everyone's attention.

"They were normal humans. A witch would never have been caught. They used their powers to hide their spell books and potions, working on blending into the crowds so they would be safe. After the trials were done, they all fled Salem and went to different places to escape the trials. Sadly, they started up in different countries all over the world." She said.

"Innocent men and women were accused and killed?" Sora asked sadly.

"They were stoned, drowned and beaten in many different ways to make them confess to being a witch. Most people turned against each other so that they could gain property in those times. The people took advantage of the witch hunts. They were consumed by their greed." Ken said.

After all, he had read 'The Crucifix' in school and seen the movie so that they could learn about what had happened in those times.

"How were people even accused of witchcraft?" Hikari asked.

"For being different." Jyou said.

"Yes, simply not being religious would make people assume you're a witch." Koushirou said.

"That's so stupid though." Taichi said with his fist clenched.

He didn't like hearing about this stuff.

Then he looked over at Dai, his hazel eyes filled with worry as he saw how down she looked hearing about all of this.

The history lessons her grandmother gave her were all filled with pain and death for many innocents who were caught up in a torrent of greed and suffered for other people's amusement or those who wanted to have a feeling of heroism by killing the pawn of the devil.

If there were any witch hunters now a days, then he would make sure to keep Dai safe from them.

Looking over to Yamato, azure eyes met hazel and the two boys nodded as they knew they both agreed with each other on protecting Dai.

"It's getting late. We should get moving now." Iori said as he looked at his watch.

The group all nodded as they started heading off for their own homes, Ken deciding to spend the night at the Motomiyas.

His parents already knew he would, so they didn't need to be called to know about it.

"I'm happy that you're alive." The child of Kindness said suddenly making her look at him.

"Huh?" she asked.

"Well, the battle with those demons. I'm happy your survived it and had some new friends looking out for you. But I would feel better if you didn't go out helping them until you're strong enough to fight on your own." Ken said.

Dai giggled as she hugged her best friend, making him blush a bit at the contact.

He would even blush when his mother hugged him.

"I promise I won't go demon hunting until I can kill them without almost dying myself." She swore.

With that being said, the two walked off to the apartment to talk and spend some much needed time together that they had skipped out on due to studies and saving the world.

The end.


End file.
